


Hugs

by JunebugPancakes



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, NSFW, Smut, dubcon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-07-27 01:15:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7597720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JunebugPancakes/pseuds/JunebugPancakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Revenge. David was always making Max do stupid shit. But this time he'd gone too far, and was about to get a taste of his own medicine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Roped In

Max couldn't be forced into anything.

He was as stubborn as an ass and stood as firm as an oak about everything - he would have made a good Woodscout had he cared about anything ever. This was the kid, after all, who got shanked in the back and hardly batted an eye. A real hard ass who could and _would_ destroy those who messed with him.

David was about to find this out.

Today was high ropes camp day at Camp Campbell. The suspended obstacle course circled the entire perimeter of the lake and at the finish line had a zip line that led straight back to the start, but went downwards into the lake so one would end it by trekking out of the shallow water. It was a fun way to be challenged and then cool off with a refreshing dip in fresh lake water.

Max, however, didn't see it this way. Max thought that, like everything else at Camp Campbell, this was stupid and a waste of his time and energy. Sure, exercising was important if he ever wanted to beat the living fuck out of David, but he decided that the best time for that was on his own terms. Plus, rope courses meant wearing those stupid harnesses and that meant it would have to be applied by an 'adult', I.E.: David. And there was no way, he was going to voluntarily allow that self-righteous moron of a man put his pasty hands all over him, let alone come anywhere close to him with a set of restraints. And really, Max simply wanted to make David's life difficult with his defiance at this point.

Soon enough, the time came for the campers to make their way to the high ropes course. Every child was rounded up from their tents and herded like sheep towards their daily activity. David and Gwen were the shepherds.

"Aren't you just so excited, Gwen?" exclaimed David in his typical cheerful voice. God, the sound of it was like nails on a chalkboard.

"Thrilled," Gwen monotoned in response, not giving him the luxury of a glance.

"Our campers are earning their right of passage," he continued, almost sing-song. He sighed nostalgically, "Ah, I remember my first time on the ropes course. 'Course things were different back then! Our ropes were lower and we didn't have the zip line we have today - no sir! - we had to take the 'Leap of Faith' straight on into the lake!"

"For the love of - You tell this story every single time we do the ropes course! And swim in the lake, and even touch a rope!"

Max spoke up, "Yeah, no one wants to hear your shitty stories, David."

"Now Max, Gwen, is that any attitude to have for only the _best_ day of the whole year?"

"The best day?" Max huffed, "I wasn't aware your funeral was planned for today."

David either elected not to hear that, or genuinely missed it due to his blind excitement. The group came to a full stop at the base of a thick wooden post that extended up into the heights of the trees. Sloppily tied to it were decrepit lengths of worn rope which all looked near to breaking. Rotting wooden planks made a bridge between the first part of the course to the next, which was a web-like obstacle course wherein the obstacles were stones tied to the rope and some very unhappy crows which perched there regularly. After that, rope monkey bars (with no safety net underneath) extended to a climbing challenge made of actual rocks somehow bolted to another thick wooden post. The course went on like this; and taking one look at it, Neil threw his arms up in outrage and disgust.

"Oh fuck no! This is a law suit waiting to happen and I am _not_ gonna be the kid that falls and splatters on the ground causing it."

David knelt down to Neil's height and put his arm around the boy's shoulders, "Come on, Neil, the only thing this is, is an opportunity at some good healthy exercise!"

"I did not come here to get 'good healthy exercise'," Neil retorted, throwing David's arm off himself.

"Then it's an added bonus! I bet when you get home all fit after science camp, your parents will let you come back every single year!"

Neil began spouting an incredible stream of protests, but once again David was selectively deaf and managed to get the child who was blinded with rage into a harness in two point five seconds. Before he knew it, Neil was on a team with Nikki and was scaling a widely-spaced teamwork ladder up to the ropes.

Nerris and Harrison were paired, Dolph and Ered somehow ended up together, and finally Nurf and Preston got teamed. This left Max as the odd one out. He smirked to himself and leaned back against the trunk of a tree.

"Aw geez Max, are you the last one?" David inquired as he looked about for perhaps a spare camper, but Space Kid was out of commission for a while with a belly full of rocks and a few chipped teeth.

"Well I guess that means I can't participate since this course is physically impossible without a partner," he remarked.

"Absolutely not!" David exclaimed. Max gave a snide grin which immediately disappeared upon the man continuing his statement. "I'll be your partner!" he finished with a twinkle in his eye.

"You have got to be fucking kidding m-" Max's sentence was cut when an arm coiled tight around his torso and lifted him up to the counselor's side.

"I will stand at _nothing_ in order to help you have a great summer, Max!"

In another two and a half seconds, Max found himself fighting against being slipped into restraints. David's hands touching him all over was seriously skeeving him out to the point of goose bumps. If only Nikki were down here, and not already halfway done with the course, to sink her canines into his grubby graspers. His swatting was getting him nowhere, but it did manage to delay David's record harnessing time from two point five all the way to three full seconds. Still, Max had lost that battle. But he would not lose the war.

"I'm not climbing," he stated objectively. David ignored him and headed over to the course start with the camper tucked under his arm.

David was so tall that he had no problem climbing the teamwork ladder himself. He attached Max's harness to the back of his where Max dangled deadweight and impudent, decidedly having no part in any of this.

Through each part of the course, David encouraged Max and talked to him as if he were actually pulling his weight. By the time they were only a quarter through the course, Max was genuinely impressed with how utterly brainless David seemed to be. After all, it was even more 'discouraging' to hear baseless praise than to have the man just ignore his defiance. There was no reason for him not to shut up right now. Max fantasized about unclasping his hook and dropping to his death.

After a couple hours of traversing the seemingly infinite ropes, every other team had completed their run and Gwen faced the challenge of undoing each of their wet harnesses and then releasing them back into the lake where they had collectively decided they wanted to be. Max and David were the last ones up and, consequently, the last ones down. This meant everyone who had finished were now at the bottom, and they all chanted both cheers and jeers at the pair.

"Just listen to those words of encouragement!" David said.

' _Push him off, Max!', 'Take the plunge!', 'I think I was just bitten by a snake!'_

Max remained indifferent.

"Alright, Max," David began, removing the child from his back and attaching him to the zipline, "I know it's sad, but only one person allowed on the zipline at a time, so you'll have to go it alone-"

"So help me, David, if you put me on that death trap, I will single-handedly make sure your life is a living hell until the day you die."

"Don't be scared, buddy!" David cheerfully replied.

"I am not sca- aaahh!" And thus, Max was released from David's grasp and sent barreling down the zipline at top speed.

"Bon Voyage!" the counselor called out from behind. His voice was drowned out by Max's shrill screaming. The boy was plunged into the freezing cold waters of the lake, fully clothed. The instant he touched the water, he went entirely limp - figuring if he drowned himself, David would be charged with murder and undoubtedly discover the meaning of 'jailbait'. To his dismay, Gwen rescued him within moments and relieved him of his harness.

Sopping wet and humiliated, Max stood on the lake's edge listening to the laughter of every other camper. As David connected himself to the zipline and prepared for takeoff, Max's mint green eyes narrowed. His blood began to boil underneath his skin. His fists clenched at his sides and he grit his teeth.

David soon came crashing down into the water with a splash that sunk Neil in a tidal wave. Max glared at the man long and hard, practically burning holes into his head. When Neil resurfaced, David ruffled the kid's hair and gave a high-spirited laugh. A few of Max's abstract thoughts that flashed through his mind in that moment were _torture, annihilate,_ and _slaughter_. He heaved a breath, trembling with rage. That man was going to suffer for this. As promised, Max was going to make his life _pure. living. hell._

And that was how it all started.


	2. Snake in the Grass

So far, David must have thought he was off the hook. Things continued as mostly normal, camp activities went ahead, no riots ensued, David continued to wake up alive each morning, no attempts at escape had occurred, Nikki and Neil were their normal selves - but Max was quiet. He went along with everything without complaint (albeit at bare minimum effort), which was very much out of the ordinary.

At lunch every day in the mess hall, he sat at the end of the table glaring into his food like it had insulted his mother. Sometimes he would run the tip of his knife through it, creating a long channel where gravy seeped out into the rest of the tray. He imagined it was David's throat, but his plans would have to be a lot less sloppy. The day before, he had decided that he didn't want to kill David, but to subject him to a fate worse than death. Max wanted to make sure David knew exactly the amount of torture he himself endured day in and day out at that godforsaken camp. He wanted David to feel frustration and anger and hatred, and see how long it took him to finally snap.

But _how_?

It had been nearly a week since that fateful day and he had no such luck deciding how to make that pathetic excuse of a man suffer. People were starting to notice his withdrawal. He'd never been compliant for this long without ulterior motives. That day at lunch, Nikki was the first to acknowledge it out loud.

"Hey Max," she began. Max paused from where he was carving a pentagram into the wooden table and met her eyes with daggers in his own. She continued heedlessly, "Are you ever gonna get back at David for making you do that ropes course?"

"Yeah, you don't usually let that stuff go," Neil added, "but you've been letting him walk all over you since then."

Max didn't reply for a nearly a full minute, and the other two had gone back to eating until he finally spoke up, "I'm just waiting."

The other two gave inquisitive looks, Nikki with her cheeks full of food.

"Revenge is best served cold."

There was a moment of silence.

"Unlike whatever this stuff is!" Nikki chimed in, giving a wide grin toward her lunch before continuing to shovel it into her face. The boys stared at her with varying levels of confusion. Max then turned his attention down to his unfinished pentagram once again and gripped his knife so hard, the plastic broke in his hand. _David_.

After lunch, things went on uninterrupted. Neither of Max's companions asked any more questions and David, as always, was Captain Oblivious. Their post-lunch activity for the day was rock skipping. What an agonizingly stupid thing to include as a camp activity. Whether it was classified as a camp sub-activity or as a full blown camp, no one was really sure.

Max had collected a handful of smooth rocks he'd intended to use for skipping and one jagged one he considered engulfing in a campfire and then using it to carve his name into David's skin - so that he never forgot who not to fuck with. He smirked at it only briefly before a rough pat to his back caused him to drop everything he was holding.

"Love the enthusiasm, Max!" David's horrendously jolly voice exclaimed from behind. Max froze on spot. "Looks like those high ropes taught you a thing or two about the importance of participation!" The man trotted away after that, leaving the boy to simmer in even more rage. In an instant, Max had the stone back in his hand and was wound back to hurl it at David's head, but stopped in his his tracks. The time was not right. Not here, not now; but tonight was the night. He didn't know how, but he was going to get back at David if it killed him.

He took three deep breaths and aimed the stone at the water instead. It skipped a total of... infinity times, given that it went so far everyone eventually lost sight of it. Max received a round of applause, and an appropriate amount of cheering from Nikki. The sigh he heaved out after that manifested as a growl as he stomped away to look for another torture rock to replace the one he just spent.

A fair distance away from the others, Max returned to the place he had initially found the almost-murder-weapon and searched for another. This area was surrounded by boulders which made a bay in the water where only the high tides could reach. Max slipped down into the divot in terrain and browsed the selection of sharp stones.

Amongst the rocks, a low hissing sound emanated from a dark space. Max's searching hand slowed as his eyes followed the sound to a crevice between two large, flat stones. He raised his eyebrows and stood up straight, dusting off his hands on his jeans. Slowly, he approached the nook with keen interest.

He carefully lifted the top stone away to reveal a water moccasin poised in strike mode. Startled by the light, it retracted a bit, seeming to be giving Max one final chance to escape. Max jumped in his skin, but remembered not to make any sudden moves. His eyes twinkled. A cruel grin spread across his face. This was perfect.

The boy lowered the rock back down to its previous position and then bolted away, leaping over the boulders, in the direction of his tent to find something to capture it with. He returned with an empty pickle jar with holes punched in the lid that Nikki had been using for her bug collection. The bugs that were contained within are probably currently rejoicing in their regained freedom to all their friends. This took priority. Nikki would understand.

He returned to the rock pool to find the snake disappeared but not gone as he heard its hissing from inside a narrow hole that hadn't been there before. The boy thought for a second. He utilized the future snake prison as a water scoop and emptied it down the hole. After a few moments of accepting the underwater home, the snake surfaced to breathe and Max made to capture it posthaste.

The capture was a success! The snake coiled up in the bottom of the jar, pressing its nose against the glass and flashing its cottonmouth to its captor. Celebratory of his quick wits, Max pulled down one eyelid and stuck his tongue out at his inmate.

He chuckled, "I think I'll call you Venom."

Utterly pleased with himself, Max carried Venom back to his tent and hid him under his pillow, then quickly returned to the stone-skipping extravaganza. Neil was the only one who had noticed his absence.

"Dude, you were gone for like thirty minutes, where were you?"

"A wise felon never reveals his crime," Max said, shoving his hands in his pockets. This would be the last day he would have to play along with David's bullshit activities ever again. "Are you staying hydrated, Neil?"

"Wha- dude, what?"

Max smiled cruelly, "Let's go refill our canteens."


	3. After All You've Done to Blackmail Me

It was almost shower time. Nikki, Neil, and Max were in their tent gathering up their bathroom supplies before heading out. In each of their pockets was a small tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush, and floss. Mouthwash was the only luxury provided, but the rumor was that it had been a mandatory install after so many campers got cavities from camp food.

"Guys, seriously, hurry up! I don't know if I can hold it much longer," said Neil with his hands in his lap and his legs crossed. Max sniggered.

"Patience is a virtue, Neil," he said more to himself than Neil.

"Yeah well, tell that to my kitten bladder!"

Nikki threw her towel over her shoulder and undid her ponytails, letting her long hair fall back together. "Alright, you guys, let's go. Gotta make space for tomorrow's fresh dirt!"

Max grabbed his towel as well which concealed the snake prison from his two friends. He ran a hand through his curly locks and grinned as they all left their tent and headed to the camp bath house.

It was a relatively short walk through the forest and down a gravel path until they came upon a building just about the size of the mess hall. On the right was the girl's bathroom and on the left was the boy's bathroom. Sometimes Nikki used both when there were no counselors around to stop her. The boys didn't question or mind when she used their bathroom so long as she didn't take too long in the shower. Gwen and David were there this time, however, to regulate good bathroom habits. And so she bid goodbye to the boys before heading into the girl's bathroom for her shower.

Max and Neil entered the boy's room and Neil bolted to the closest toilet (he refused to use the urinals at that camp because one time, Nurf was in the bath house with him and took the liberty of stuffing him inside the one he'd just used without having flushed it. Never again). The sigh of relief echoed throughout the whole bath house. Max was pretty sure Nikki heard it on her side because her laugh also echoed through the whole building. Shaking his head, Max walked past Neil toward the showers.

There were three showers in the bath house and there was usually always a line, but they had arrived quite late and the last few campers were using them before them. There was one shower open at the moment and it was the 'big shower', which was what they called the handicapped shower. The shower was bigger, sported hand rails, and had a lot more floor space to it. Max took this one.

Locking the door behind him, Max set Venom's jar on the wooden bench that hung on the left wall. He undressed, grabbed a bar of soap, and took a two minute shower - since that's all the while hot water lasted there before ice started coming from the nozzle instead.

Just as he finished, he heard the toilet flush and another sigh of relief from Neil. The stall was now free. Max smirked as he listened to Neil go to brush his teeth while waiting for a shower to be free.

After Max dried off, he got dressed right away in his shower stall, as he would need to conceal the snake in the towel once again. He left the shower and changed places with Neil, but before he went to brush his teeth, he waited for Neil to shut the door and then took a detour to the toilet stall he'd just been in.

The boy worked quickly, kneeling down to unscrew the lid of the jar and keeping it there until he was ready to release it into the toilet. He quickly shut the toilet lid down so that the snake didn't escape, but it would be perfectly happy there in the water until Neil had to go again. He always used the same stall - the first one closest to the door, and provided that no one else got there first (which they shouldn't because everyone had already had their bathroom time and were on their way to bed now), he'd be there with Neil when he found it.

Making sure to keep the jar hidden still so that he was not questioned, Max left the stall and went to brush his teeth as normal.

By the time Neil came out of the shower, Max was done and waiting by the door with his towel under his arm and leaning against the wall. Neil took a moment to fill up his canteen from the sink as he'd been doing all day under Max's supervision.

"Alright, dude, let's head back," Neil said, adjusting his towel hat that was drying his afro and throwing the strap of his canteen around his shoulder. Max nodded and they both exited the bath house to find Nikki kindly waiting on them. David had left for bed and it had just been Gwen waiting on them to finish. Neil took a drink out of his newly refilled canteen.

"Alright, g'night kids," she said before turning to leave.

"Goodnight, Gwen! Sleep well!" Max said in a bright voice.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Nikki asked Max as they all started back to their tent.

"What? I can't be happy without some ulterior motive?" he joked, knowing full well that was indeed the case. One arm around the jar/towel and the other hand shoved in his pajama pocket, Max walked with his head high and it slightly concerned both of his friends who were too afraid to question him any further.

...

The whole stadium was cheering for him.

" _Max! Max! Max! Max!"_

Just this one free shot would win them the game if he made it into the goal.

" _Max! Max! Max! Max!"_

Taking a deep breath, the boy took a few steps back and got a running start. He kicked the disembodied David head with every ounce of force in his body and the 'ball' went flying towards the goalie.

"Max!" A sharp pain struck his cheek, waking him from his dream.

"Ow, what the fuck, man?" Max groaned, sitting up in his sleeping bag and rubbing the tender spot where Neil had struck him.

"Nature's calling," the other admitted, suggesting that Max come with him to the bathroom.

"Aw man. I was about to win the championships." He dragged himself out of bed and groped around for his flashlight in the dark.

"Yeah well, I'm about to lose the battle with nature. Hurry up!"

"Yeah yeah, keep your pants on, I'm coming." Max rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and unzipped the tent door, allowing Neil to go first.

They made their way through the woods and down the gravel path until they arrived once again at the bath house. The exterior light was always on at night so that the campers could find their way, but they had to turn on and off the lights inside to save Campbell money on power. Once they got close, Neil broke into a jog and rushed into the building, leaving Max dragging behind. He'd made it through the front door just as Neil's stall door closed.

Leaning against the wall by the door, Max had a lazy smirk. He didn't have to wait long for Neil to scream at the top of his lungs at the sight of a water moccasin coiled up in his favourite toilet.

"Max, there's a fucking snake in here!" he shouted, running back out of the stall with his hands over his privates.

"Oh _no!_ I guess I'll have to go get David! He'll know what to do," Max said, holding back a chuckle as he turned and left the building.

Max took his sweet time strolling casually down the way to the counselor's cabin where both Gwen and David slept. Gwen had the right wing where David had the left, each had their own bathroom, but they had a shared kitchen and sitting room. Max got approximately thirty feet away before he started taking rapid breaths and ran the rest of the way so that he would look panicked.

He approached the front door and banged on it as hard as he could, "Help, help! David, I need help!" Gwen slept with ear plugs as she could not care less what happened to the campers after hours.

That was odd, there was no response.

Max banged on the door again, "David, this is serious! I need your help!"

"Come back later!" a croaky voice replied.

"Excuse me? This is an emergency! There's a snake in the bathrooms! Get out here!"

"I'll take care of it in the morning, alright? It's fine, just go in the woods - nature is your friend! Gwen and I are trying to sleep."

Okay, that was definitely unacceptable, and not to mention suspicious. Max's plan had been to get David out of his cabin so that he could search through his things for some dirt to expose to the whole camp and teach him what it felt like to be humiliated. But that couldn't happen if David _wouldn't leave his cabin_.

Max grumbled and produced a bobby pin he'd taken from Nikki's stash. He used it whenever he wanted to get into the kitchen and into the counselors' secret snack stash. A handy tool anytime.

He unlocked the door and stormed inside to bang on David's door specifically.

"David, there is a _fucking snake_ in the bath house and Neil will piss himself before he uses any other toilet. Unless you feel like washing his piss-wet clothes, I suggest you handle this right now," Max snarled at the barrier between them.

"Now is _really_ not a good time, Max. Please tell him he can use my bathroom if he really wants, but I'm trying to sleep, alright?"

Uh, no.

In a heartbeat, Max picked the lock on David's door as well, flipped the lights, and was beside his bed fuming with rage. David covered up to just below his eyes and was as pale as a ghost.

"Max, you shouldn't be in here! This is my private cabin, I won't ask you again - please leave me alone. Why doesn't Nikki take care of it? She loves that kind of thing," David croaked, cowering under the blankets.

"Oh no, you are the _counselor_ and there is a deadly reptile in one of the fucking _toilets_ that we have to use. Get out there and do your _goddamn job_ , or I'm telling Campbell and you'll be fired!"

David furrowed his brow at him, "Max, leave right now!"

"No!" Hot with rage, Max gripped tight on David's blanket and jerked it all the way off the bed.

Jesus _fucking_ Christ.

Max froze in absolute shock. David, who was now beet red in the face, was stark naked and had his hand wrapped around his very hard cock. In the next instant, he scrambled to cover himself up once again, pulling the blanket up from the ground where Max had dropped it.

"Max," David shouted, throwing an arm out and pointing at the door, "out!"

Silence resonated between them. Out of all the embarrassing things Max thought he might find in David's room, this wasn't a possibility he considered. Oh, but it was so much better. Max shook away his shock. He returned David's glare and huffed.

"No. You get out there and do your fucking job - get rid of that snake, or the whole camp is going to know about this. I am _not_ just going to let you finish rubbing one out while there is a venomous snake about to bite Neil's dick off." Max stormed over to the bedroom door and stood with his arms crossed. "I mean it, let's go. Right now."

David was silent for a moment before putting his face in his hand and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine, Max, just- geez, just let me get dressed."

Another pause.

"I'm waiting," said Max expectantly.

David groaned as he realized Max wasn't even going to let him dress in peace. With an accompanying sigh, the man reached for his discarded pajamas over the side of the bed and tried his best to get dressed under the shield of the blankets. Max never moved his piercing stare the whole time, watching intently with hawk's eyes. Finally, David grabbed his flashlight and a pair of leather gloves and set out into the night with Max trailing close behind.

They arrived back at the bath house to find Neil standing in the hall beside the stretch of stalls with a wet stain in his pants and tears in his eyes.

"What took you so long?" he asked, sniffling.

"Jesus Christ, Neil, really?" Max groaned. "Told you, David."

"Aw Neil," David sighed and walked up to the crying boy and knelt down to console him. He patted his back and rubbed his hair. "It's alright buddy, accidents happen."

"Fuck you, David!" Neil snapped, punching David away and crossing his arms. He stormed over to stand beside Max with wet shoes. He grumbled low, "Fuck you too, Max."

"Hey man, you don't even know what I just had to witness to get him back here-"

"Max!" David yelped, marching over to him and getting down to his knees, "don't say another word, okay? I - I'll let you sit out of inner tubing tomorrow, okay?"

"Hmm..." Max pondered the offer for a moment, then grinned. " _All_ of tomorrow's activities."

"Max... I can't do th-"

"David was in his bed, j-"

"Alright, alright! Okay, you're exempt from _all_ of tomorrow's activities. Just don't say anything, please."

"You got it, Davey!"

David breathed a sigh of relief, thanked him, then went back to the stall and worked on coaxing the snake out of the toilet.

"Geez, man, what'd you do?" Neil asked, mouth ajar with surprise.

Max smirked and stuffed both hands in his pockets. "I've got David wrapped around my little finger."


	4. Don't Bite the Hand that Jerks You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand here it is! I hope the shitty wait was worth it for 15k of suffering. I haven't even read all the comments that have been left on this for anxiety reasons but recently I opened one of my ao3 emails for a comment begging me to continue and the spark of creative determination flared up in me again. Don't worry friends, I have absolutely no intention of letting this die come hell and high water. The Hugs will continue until the very end. Enjoy!

Not that he regretted it or anything, for blackmail reasons, but there was an obvious problem with what he'd seen in David's cabin that night. A piece of what little innocence he had left died and in its place was a very... _adult_ feeling.

Puberty had loudly introduced itself, bringing in its wake a hormonal gift; from where he was laying on top of his cot, Max stared down at the tent in his pajama pants with unyielding disgust.

Ever since the instant he'd seen David's exposed shame, Max hadn't been able to take the image out of his mind. It was something like three in the morning and it had been a few hours since the whole thing went down. The silence of the nighttime amplified his thoughts, making it impossible to sleep under these conditions.

Frustrated and sleepy, he wondered if it would be so bad to take care of it just for the sake of removing it from his mind. Neil and Nikki were sound asleep. He'd sat up and checked before even starting to consider anything.

Max pressed his lips together. He extended a nervous hand out to touch his hardness. It was entirely alien to him. With just the gentlest touch, his cock twitched in anticipation and a sharp gasp escaped him. He recoiled his hand momentarily in surprise, then reached it out again to give his erection a soft squeeze.

Felt nice. Slightly emboldened, he pulled away his pants and underwear to expose his member to the open. The sight of his own body's natural reactions admittedly frightened him a little, mostly because it was something about himself that he had little control over. Still cautious, Max dragged his hand down to the base of his cock and then up to the tip. A shiver encompassed him, making him release a sigh.

He pictured it again - the humiliation in David's eyes, his red face, his lithe body and hard cock - it was so wrong. David was the bane of his existence, and not to mention a grown man. He was... He...

God what the fuck? Was he honestly sitting there fantasizing about David? That repulsive ray of sunshine was the reason his body was betraying him. David caused this.

And yet, no matter how many times Max attempted to reason with himself that it was a biological reaction to seeing another person experiencing lust, and that it had nothing to do with that man, it didn't solve the situation. The problem still persisted, but there was no way in sane hell that he was going to indulge these thoughts. It was wrong on a number of levels, but most importantly the fact that it was _David_.

Fuck that. Max covered himself up again and slipped underneath his covers.

Tomorrow was another day. But plans were going to change ever so slightly. Getting out of activities was no longer enough, not for what this was doing to him. No, this was unacceptable. David would have to pay for this now too, in addition to the high ropes course incident.

...

In the morning, Max awoke to Gwen's voice over the megaphone. She was making the morning round to wake up all the campers for breakfast.

He sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Neil was still laying back, sprawled out, groaning about mornings. Nikki, as always, was up and at 'em, ready to _campe diem_. She gathered her morning wares - toothbrush and toothpaste - and stuffed them in the front pocket of her overalls. When she'd gotten dressed, who knew? All the campers attended breakfast in their pajamas and then changed in the bath house while brushing their teeth.

"That's strange," she said, "Gwen never does the wake up call. You guys reckon something happened to David?"

Max scoffed, "Yeah, last night he had his hands wrapped around a snake." He smirked, amused by his own comment.

"Ooh, you think it bit him? Maybe his arm fell rotted from all the venom and fell off!"

Max shuffled around in search of his dental care supplies. "That, my friend, would be more inconvenient for him than you think."

Neil sat up and collected his toothbrush and such from where he always kept them - in the backpack that held most everything he needed. He also grabbed his clothes for the day and anxiety medication.

Max soon gathered everything he needed and then all three of them were off to the Mess Hall.

Breakfast was nothing special - the standard scrambled eggs, unripe diced tomatoes, and sausage bits mix that looked like literal vomit, almost-too-spoiled-to-drink-but-not-quite milk, and the only slightly stomachable thing - a stale mixed berry muffin with a paper liner that was pretty much part of it so that even when you tried to peel it off, it stuck on and you would either have to eat around it or just submit and eat the paper too.

But what made it the most glorious day of the entire summer, was watching David walk in late with the same heavy bags under his eyes that Max himself had. And then watching him stumble over to the counselor's breakfast table and faceplant into the plate in front of him in his utter exhaustion.

Max's lips curled up into a shit-eating grin.

Gwen pulled David's face back up by his hair and raised an eyebrow. "That's disgusting." The man shook off some of his delirium and wiped away the food that was stuck to his face.

"Sorry, I just-"

"Didn't sleep well last night, David?" Max's voice suddenly chimed in. He'd abandoned his table and friends to make an appearance at the scene of his crime. He stared at David with his brows raised and a condescending smile.

David's brows furrowed and he frowned. "What do you want, Max?" he groaned, following a sigh.

_Just came to rub it in._ "Just saying good morning! Man it is a be-u-tiful day, isn't it?" Without breaking eye contact with David, Max turned to throw open the curtains next to them. The window facing the sunrise. Just peaking over the trees, the sun's brilliant rays glinted off the lake and shot blinding bright light straight into David's sleep-deprived eyes.

David yelped and threw his hands over his eyes, violently rubbing away the horrible burning.

"Just take a look at that sunrise!"

"Max!" David raised his voice and balled his fists. He then seemed to realize his temperament and took a deep breath. "Please close those curtains."

"Why? I'm just trying to enjoy the beauty of nature."

David didn't argue with him. Instead he got up from his chair and shut them himself, glowering at Max the whole way over. He then reached down and nudged Max in the direction of his breakfast table once again.

"Finish your breakfast and don't get up again."

Max scowled at being pushed, but resigned and returned to his two friends. He'd had his fun. And it was only just beginning.

He watched from his chair, staring icily as David toyed with his food. The man had his cheek in his hand, eyes empty and dazed. He sat silently like that for a minute while Gwen read one of her trashy magazines, ignoring her breakfast as well. After a few moments, he lifted his gaze to glance around the room at the campers he would have to be leading through activities today. Then his eyes caught the cover of Gwen's magazine which depicted a couple very... shamelessly grinding on each other. (The magazine had been talking about the evolution of dance or something, Max thought; it was what he picked up just from the brief look he got of it when he wasn't staring down his arch enemy.) David's eyes fixed on it and his cheeks started to colour over. Then, somewhat suddenly, he readjusted in his seat, hands dropping to his lap where they - his eyes shifted around the room nervously - gently tugged at the inner thighs of his shorts in attempt to relieve some of the pressure against his...

Woah.

_Idea_.

Max's stern look evolved into one of conception. It had dawned on him - the most evil thing he could possibly do to that man would be to make him suffer the same frustration Max faced every day at this camp, and to mix that with the humiliating arousal from the night before. Max sneered with satisfaction. He took a bite of his muffin and cemented his decision.

David would not be allowed to get off for as long as it took to shatter his pathetic morale. There was almost nothing worse than being _this close_ to what you desperately need (whether it was to escape from a hellhole of a summer camp or, y'know, ejaculation) and having it seized away from you and there being nothing you could do about it. And he knew just how he was going to do it.

...

The first opportunity came after lunch. Every day, the campers would have an hour and a half of free time before regrouping and moving on to the next activity of the day. In this time, the camp counselors were expected to prepare for the afternoon projects but usually Gwen left that to David as he was the only one who used that time productively. This time, however, she offered to take over just like the morning roundup. She'd seen how tired he was and advised him to take a nap. Max watched the exchange from where he was leaning against the wall of the Mess Hall, hands shoved in the pocket of his hoodie, as she placed a hand on his shoulder and gave a reassuring smile. David thanked her, rubbing his tired eyes, and turned to go back to the counselor's cabin for his well-needed rest.

Unbeknownst to him, however, he was being followed. Max kept sufficient distance between them so that he never heard the trailing footsteps. He unlocked the door and went inside, swinging it shut behind him. Max approached soon after, dashing up to the door now that David was out of earshot. He tried to peak in through the window right by it, but the curtains were drawn closed. Instead, he pressed his ear to the door and listened closely.

"Thank goodness she's taking over. I don't know if I could have made it much longer." Hearing David admit to being close to breaking was gratifying all on its own but he continued listening. A pair of thuds sounded which were probably David's shoes being kicked off, then he heard another door shut.

This was his opportunity to sleuth inside. The idiot had left the front door unlocked so he easily slipped in and put his ear up to David's bedroom door now. The rustling of his clothes, the springs of his bed, and then... silence.

Max frowned. If David was genuinely going to take a nap, there would be no reason for him to be there. He listened and listened and listened, but there was nothing for at least three full minutes. Max sighed and pulled back. Neil and Nikki would probably be wondering where he was at anyway. He didn't get the chance to tell them about his plan.

He opened his mouth to start a resignation sentence to himself, but just then a muffled sound came from behind the door. It was almost inaudible, but Max had caught it. He made a quiet gasp and pressed his ear back against the barrier, only wishing he hadn't taken it off in the first place. Things were quiet again, like, almost completely silent except for tiny sounds of the sheets rustling - but nothing that suggested anything other than sleep. He squinted and strained to listen harder. There was a faint indistinguishable noise other than that. And then suddenly, it came again - the original noise. It was a breath. A sigh. A pant, almost.

Excitement spread across Max's face - he was right! David was going to take the opportunity to make up for last night's lost orgasm. This is exactly what Max wanted. He pressed his ear against the door harder. He had to be very careful to wait until just the right moment to fuck everything up.

After a few moments, David's breathing became more audible. His speed seemed to pick up and Max heard the sound of magazine pages turning every so often. (He dared not think about what it was David was getting off to, but if he'd never caught him in the act, it probably would have been his method of blackmail instead. Given the circumstances, he wasn't sure which was worse.)

A moan, small and soft but distinct. Max's expression dropped. He grimaced, gritting his teeth and slackening against the door. If he could have done this without listening, he would have. Moment by moment, he could feel whatever sliver of innocence he had left dwindling away. David's breaths were becoming more regular now. And he didn't fully understand it, but Max's body began to heat up as well. Tingling that started in his stomach had worked its way down to his knees, making him weak-legged and shifty on his feet. The blood rushed away from his brain, making him a bit dizzy and granting him tunnel-vision. His fists clenched and unclenched, arms filled with the urge to squeeze and restrain. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly; he tried to keep his focus on the matter at hand. The biology of the situation was clear, but - same with last night - he could not, for the life of him, work out why _David_ could incite this reaction from him. That sick bastard should leave him borderline vomiting. And yet here he was, straining against the urge to burst in there and... well, actually he wasn't sure just what he wanted to do. _Something_. There was no mistake about what was going on behind this door. And in a way, Max kept inwardly hoping there actually was. Just so he wouldn't have to make a repeat of last night. But when a sharp and heavy moan suddenly flared up from inside, Max knew it was time. He put on a cruel grin and shook away his instability.

"Hey, Daaaviid," he drawled, cupping a hand around his mouth. Max crossed his arms with conceit. He smirked at the abrupt silence. He could picture David's stupid face as it drained of all colour and dropped into a look of terror. He nodded approvingly at his own prowess. "David, I know you're in there," he added after a few moments.

"What is it, Max?" David replied, trying to sound composed and lighthearted. It wasn't doing him any justice with the way his voice cracked right off the bat. Max could _hear_ the exasperation in his tone. He tapped his cheek and thought of an excuse for minute. What would give him reason to take up all of David's free time?

"Hm," he mumbled to himself in thought. "David, I really need your help," he pronounced slowly and impudently. David was quiet for a moment and then Max heard a sigh.

"Can it wait?"

"No. Why? I mean, you're not _doing anything, are you?_ " Max snickered to himself.

"Wh- No! Just, uh- just sleeping!"

"Oh so then you won't mind if I come in," he bluffed with a shit-eating grin. He reached for the door knob and jiggled it a few times to spook him, which worked wonders. From the other side, he heard David scramble across the room to lock the door. The man hit the door with a bang and the knob emitted a _click_.

"I-I just need to get- g-give me a minute to, uh-"

"Alright, camp man, I'll be right here. Against the door. Listening."

"Could you maybe not do that? Please? I'll be out in five min-"

"Oh no, I told you - this can't wait. This is an emergency, David." Max reproduced his lock-picking bobby pin and started work on the door. "I hope you're aware I can pick locks, David, 'cause if you aren't ready by the time I get in there..."

"Don't you dare force your way in here!" David warned, somehow managing to verbally express his hands on his hips.

"Better hurry," Max taunted, rattling the pin in the lock. "You already know you can't stop me!"

There came a tiny whimper from the other side and David seemed to skitter across the room once again. Drawers opened and closed. Rustling sounds that suggested he was getting dressed were a positive sign. Max mentally congratulated himself on his powers of manipulation. He continued picking the lock until it came loose. He removed the bobby pin and returned it to its place in the front pocket of his jeans.

Just as he was about to open the door, David timidly peeked his head through with an apprehensive smile. Something in the way his eyes jumped between Max's revealed he was even more nervous than usual. Max simply smiled patiently. A moment's hesitation hovered between them; until finally, David resigned with a sigh and opened the door fully.

The laughter that erupted from Max was absolutely unintended. But David was standing there looking totally defeated, arms slack and knees knocked together, with a _fucking wraparound_. A grey jacket that he'd produced from somewhere was tied around his hips backwards. It honestly did little to hide his obvious hard-on, but Max decided to humor him as though it wasn't nearly poking him in the face. He held the back of his hand to his mouth and shook off the giggles, but David wasn't making it easy with the way he looked down at him with pathetic and shameful eyes.

"Great!" Max said, turning to head out the front door. "Let's go."

David stepped out behind him, begrudgingly following Max's orders. He led them back towards the main area with his shoulders squared with pride.

Their walk back to the grouping of tents was completely silent and shrouded with Max's air of satisfaction and David's air of defeat. When they stopped outside Max's shared tent with Neil, the other boy had just been emerging.

Neil smiled at his friend, "Hi Max!" and then dropped it as he glanced over to David and evaluated his... style choices.

David crossed his arms.

"Alright, so what's the big emergency?" he asked impatiently. Max glanced around.

"Uh..."

And then just like that, Nikki conveniently appeared with Max's saving grace. She wore an ear-to-ear smile.

"Guys! Look at my new friend!" All three of the boys' faces paled. In Nikki's arms, she wielded a full grown skunk like it were a machine gun. "Her name is Esmeralda! I taught her a trick too, look!"

Knowing who they were up against, David and Max both had the presence of mind to step back while Neil panicked and pleaded "Nikki, no!" as she cocked its tail in her hand and squeezed its body. The skunk shrieked and fired its defensive weapon. All over Neil.

Nikki laughed maniacally.

Max and David pinched their noses shut with varying reactions. Max grinned as a horrified David told Nikki very firmly to put the skunk back where she found it and led Neil to the bath house. Max followed.

The rest of that hour and a half was spent finding Neil new clothes, bringing out a tin barrel and filling it with tomato juice, and helping Neil bathe out the putrid stench. During which, David never left Max's sight. Even when Neil stripped down to climb in the tub and David helped scrub him down, Max stayed patiently.

His work had been done, and now it was a matter of surveillance.

Max had spent the entire day glued to David's side, ever vigilant. And now as the sun set, it was time to get ready for bed.

The entire camp filed to the showers for their nighttime ritual. David and Gwen stood at their posts, watching over the campers as they went in and out of the bathrooms. Gwen frowned at David who looked like he was running on fumes, ready to pass out at any given second. Max, on the other hand was still going strong. He'd made sure earlier to fry his brain with caffeine and sugar so that tonight he could carry out phase two. For all of maybe ten minutes, David was out of Max's sight while he showered and brushed his teeth and used the bathroom. He knew David wouldn't go anywhere. Not while he was this exhausted. David would only have sleep on his mind. And he was right. David was in the same place as he was when he left him- standing next to Gwen, drooping like a zombie. Max smirked and returned to his spot by David's side where he stood silently until the last two campers left the bathrooms and turned into their tents for the night.

David rubbed his eyes. "Max? Aren't you going to bed?"

"Nah," Max replied with a smug head shake. David sighed heavily, kneeling down to Max's height.

"What's wrong, now?" he sulked, placing his face in his hand and shaking his head.

"I don't want to share a tent with Neil tonight. I mean, who could get any sleep with the place reeking of tomato juice and skunk residue?"

David was on edge, irritable, and did not care for Max's misbehavior at that moment.

"Well Max," he began snappily, standing back up and turning to head in the direction of the counselor's cabin, "it really doesn't matter what you want because those are the rules and you need to sleep in your own tent."

Max's face lit up at David's attitude. He beamed with a smile, "Woah! Someone's cantankerous tonight, huh?" He followed behind David, regardless. When David stopped suddenly, so did he.

David sighed, "Look, I-I'm sorry, alright?" He pinched the bridge of his nose and then started walking again, with Max still riding his heels. "But I'm really not in the mood right now. So can you please just go back to your tent and go to sleep?"

"You know, I really don't think I can do that, David. Because you see-"

"Yeah, alright, I get it." Max raised his brows at this, _immensely_ pleased with the fruit his plan was already bearing. "Whatever reason you have I'm sure you're not going to drop it so just come on quietly."

But ever the kid to push buttons, Max continued.

"I knew you were a reasonable guy. Maybe a little smarter than you look!" David groaned.

Soon they came to the counselor's cabin where Gwen had reached just a bit before them. The lights were already on and the door unlocked for them. David pushed open the door and Max followed him inside. The younger stood by the door while he watched David open a closet door and retrieve from inside a spare folding cot, a blanket, and a pillow for him. Max placed a hand over his heart.

"Aw, for me? Really?" David ignored him and busied himself setting it up until Max stopped him. "Woah woah, what do you think you're doing?" David just paused, didn't bother looking at Max or saying anything, just waited for him to correct him with whatever demand he had so this day could end. "You know they make _bedrooms_ for sleeping in, David."

Another sigh. David picked up his things and moved them all to his room where Max followed.

"Now that's more like it," Max approved, shoving both hands into his hoodie.

When it was all set up, Max approached it and settled down. David crossed his arms and glared as Max removed his hoodie and laid it next to the head of his bed. The kid smiled up at him as he sat cross-legged in his cot.

"Thanks, David! You're a real swell guy."

Now Max was just testing him.

"Don't mention it." David turned and climbed into his own bed for the night, removing his bandanna and laying it on the nightstand next to him. "Goodnight, Max."

Max grins cruelly, "Sleep well, _David._ "

...

Max never remembered falling asleep, but he stayed up for at least an hour or two after David had said goodnight. He remembered hearing David snoring softly as he played his contraband hand-held game. So when he woke up to the sun rays in his eyes, he sat up with a stroke of panic and shot his eyes to David's bed. Relief washed over him. David was still in bed, and hadn't moved a muscle during the night. That man was so exhausted, he wasn't surprised.

Max yawned and stretched. The sleep would help. Yesterday was only day one, and Max knew it was only going to get harder from here. Pun intended.

Not much later, David's alarm clock started going off. Time to wake up the camp and seize the day. The man sleepily rolled over in bed and fumbled around for the off button on his clock. He sat up in bed and stretched out too.

After swinging his feet over his bed, a shriek surprised Max when Max surprised David with his presence. He had been so tired, he'd forgotten Max even slept in his room that night. Max chuckled.

"Manly scream, David," he joked. "I swing when someone wakes me up off guard." David chuckled nervously.

"Good morning, Max, are you ready to campe diem?" he asked with a friendly tone as he slid out of bed and examined the wrinkled clothes he'd accidentally slept in. Max face-palmed.

"Don't say that." He shook his head.

"Well I hope you are because we have a full schedule today." David looked at Max with a snide grin of his own. " _Lots_ of fun activities to keep you busy!" Any semblance of satisfaction Max had drained away and was replaced with a malevolent stare down.

"We'll see about that, camp man."

Well, unfortunately for Max, the day went by pretty much as normal. Not much differed in David's routine. His energy levels replenished, he resumed his position as camp fool. Max never let the man out of his sight, but David forced him into plenty of activities from gardening and art, to plays and magic.

Lunch came and went, and David never left Max's sight. He chatted joyfully, ate, laughed, smiled - god it was disgusting. But Max didn't complain. After all, as long as he was surrounded by people, he wouldn't be doing anything he shouldn't. At one point, they caught eyes over the span of the Mess Hall floor. Max's expression was entirely unreadable. Observant. And David, being the absolute moron that he was, smiled and waved. Max dropped his shoulders, giving off a disgusted 'are you kidding me' look then.

Max's after lunch free time was spent helicoptering around David as well. David hung back in the Mess Hall at the counselor's table with a cup of tea and a pair of ear buds that connected to his phone, playing one of his many years of the Farmer's Almanac. His pen scratched at the clipboard before him as he planned out the afternoon's activities. When he noticed Max had stayed behind too, he motioned for him to come sit by him. Max did not move a muscle. Not for the entire hour and a half. The only exception being when David had to go to the bathroom and Max followed, standing right outside the stall where David knew he was being watched. When he emerged, he held the door for Max, offering him the restroom as well if he might need it, but Max said nothing and continued to stare holes into David. Shrugging, David went back to his planning and Max trailed close behind.

The whole day continued on like this that by the time dinner came, Max slacked off. Though David didn't question his reasoning for following him around all day, he made no indication he intended to try slipping away again. He acted so normal that Max finally had to assume he'd gotten the message across the day before and David just didn't want to risk another incident. Plus, Max was incredibly fucking bored. You can only watch one person be uninteresting for so long before you start to consider burning ant hills with your best friend.

He contemplated sleeping in his own tent that night again. Typically before bed, Max and his friends would hang around and work on the flamethrower for an hour or so before falling asleep. Sleeping in David's room was just plain weird.

But Max was dedicated. After bedtime rituals, he took his place next to David and he would swear on his life he could physically _feel_ David deflate upon realizing tonight would be no different. But ever the optimist, he patted Max's head.

"Need something, buddy?" he said brightly.

"I'm not your _buddy_ , David," Max retorted immediately. David's expression dropped ever so slightly. "And no, I'm just waiting on you."

"Waiting for what?" David asked tentatively. Max smirked, not dignifying him with a response. He put his hands in his pocket and watched as the last of the campers left the bathrooms and headed to their tents. David held his lantern to his chest and took a deep breath before turning to Max and saluting him. "Well, it's been another great day here at Camp Campbell, Max. See you tomorrow! Goodnight!" he grinned, turning on his heel to head back to his cabin. When he heard no response from Max, he let out a breath in relief and relaxed. His facade grin became a relieved smile as he traversed the dirt path home. It lasted all of fifteen seconds until the sound of a stick cracking came from behind. He stopped dead in his tracks and breathed out slowly, "Max?"

A mockingly cheerful voice replied, "Yes, David?"

David's hand curled slowly and then trembled. He turned around, grinning again.

"Would you like to sleep in your own tent tonight?"

Max grinned wide, sadism dripping from his lips.

"Nah."

Max watched the light die in David's eyes and something stirred inside him. A bubbling in his belly that made him clench his fists and shift his weight from one foot to the other. He breathed in deeply. His grin widened and then disappeared into a smirk of satisfaction.

"Alright," David sighed, finally throwing in the towel to his overly positive demeanor for the day. "I expected this. Come on, Max." David held out his arm for Max to come walk beside him. Max did, feeling powerful.

David pulled the cot from the closet again. He might have expected Max to pull this at the end, but evidently his morning self had far more hope than his evening self did. Max watched as David dragged it back into the bedroom and laid everything back down for him.

Lights went out not long after, as is per David's strict sleeping schedule. Max retrieved his game from his pocket and played on silent for a while so that David would not hear until he heard snoring. Once he had the signal, Max closed his gameboy and lied down as well.

From beginning to end, David hadn't tried once that day to sneak away, Max thought to himself as he pulled the covers over his shoulders and got comfortable. He furrowed his brows and frowned. He could only hope at this point he wasn't wasting his time with a lost cause.

...

When the sun rose the next morning and David's alarm went off, Max sat up and locked eyes with David. And he had to admit to being a little taken aback - David wasn't smiling. He gazed down at him with a tired frown and Max decided he had to have been sizing up the day ahead and finding it not bright. David never smiled as he pulled himself out of bed and grabbed his clothes. Never smiled as Max followed him to the bath house and went into the stall to change in privacy away from Max's prying eyes. Didn't even crack a tiny one as he brushed his teeth and took his medications. In fact, David's lips didn't curl upward once all the way through the morning rounds and into breakfast.

Max ate silently with his two friends until Nikki spoke first.

"So how'd you sleep last night with David?" she asked with genuine innocence.

"He didn't break once yesterday," he answered, still dumbstruck by David. He took mindless bites of the overdone and slightly burnt pancakes from his tray as he watched the counselor make conversation with Gwen.

"Break once from what?" Neil asked. He abandoned his own breakfast after seeing the charred underside of the top disk. Max swallowed the bite in his mouth and jabbed his fork into his pancakes again, a smirk dawning on his face.

"But today's gonna be different. I can feel it," he said as he tore the fluffy cake away from its body and shoved it into his mouth. "I mean, look at him." Max's friends glanced over to David. They had no idea what Max was talking about. "He's totally cracking."

"With all due respect, Max, what the hell are you talking about?" Neil frowned and took a sip of his coffee.

"Have you ever seen David without that stupid fucking smile across his face?"

"Well yeah, plenty of times. You always have that effect on him."

Max swallowed his bite and then took a few swallows out of his coffee. He broke his gaze with David to glare at Neil.

"I know he's gonna break. Might not be today or tomorrow, but he can't fight it forever. And when he does, I'll be there."

Max was entirely right. For a total of four consecutive days, David remained resilient. It wasn't exactly according to plan, but David wasn't a man of sin and Max was prepared to deal with that.

Each night, Max followed David back to his cabin and each night, David insisted Max sleep in his own tent. All except for the last night when David did not insist that Max go back, but told him up front that tomorrow night he _would_ be sleeping in his own tent. Max, of course, protested this outright, but David didn't respond whatsoever. He wasn't giving Max the time of day to argue and talk his way out of it like he always, _always_ does.

Max spent that last night thinking about how he was going to catch David in the act the night after, when he would be forced back with the other campers. He planned for nearly an hour before he fell asleep. And then, just as his eyes were falling closed, it hit him. His eyes bugged open and he sat straight up in his cot with a grin from ear to ear. He'd been missing a glaringly obvious solution.

David's soft snoring was indicative of his sleep, but Max couldn't be too loud if he didn't want to wake him. He eased out of his bed, keeping his eyes on David's sleeping form the whole time, and tip toed towards the bedroom door. He carefully shut it behind himself before making his way over to Gwen's room and turning the knob to find it locked. Of course. He'd brought his bobby pin with him for just that reason.

Once inside, Max studied Gwen for signs of stirring. He approached her and looked her over to find that she wore earplugs while she slept. Max relaxed and grinned, eyes bolting over to her nightstand. Garbage magazines filled the thing to brim. The top was entirely covered by them and, though her drawers were labeled respectively for what they contained such as knee high socks and underwear, she seemed to have ran out of space up top and had other issues of her favourite trash poking out of each of the drawers. Even the floor surrounding it had several piles of magazines stacked up and slumped against the nightstand.

Max's mind jumped back to the first day before he spent the night with David. Breakfast that morning, when David was droopy and tired from the night before. How he caught sight of Gwen's filthy 'dancing' magazine and got all hot and bothered. If it happened once, it could happen again. Why didn't he think of this sooner?

Max rifled through the piles of fashion and gossip to find what he needed. He strained his eyes to see in the low light, the room only illuminated by the moon beams streaming in through the window.

Issues of her favourite 'Butts and Bodies' were too tame. Max hoped there was something a little more risque in there somewhere. Pages rustled as he flipped through them. God, how could she read this stuff? Not only was it straight up gross, it was mind-numbingly boring. But eventually he came across one that he thought might do the trick. As he scanned the pages of the 'Veronica's Mystery' issue, he decided that some of these girls were probably enough to bring David crumbling to his knees.

A devilish grin spread across Max's face as he exited Gwen's room and crept out to the bathrooms in the dark of the night. He flipped open the magazine and began tearing out pages. He slipped one under each of the bathroom stalls for David to find, left them on the sink counter tops and in the showers. He stuck a few in the doorway and pasted some to the mirrors with toothpaste.

Once he was satisfied with his handiwork, Max ditched the evidence - the remaining cover and back of the magazine - in the bin and headed back to the counselor's cabin for bed. If David could resist that, he had a will of steel.

...

The next morning, Max did not wake to David's alarm. Instead he woke to David.

"Max, wake up," he commanded, looming over him with a punitive glare. Max's eyes narrowed when he caught sight of the oodles of half-naked women in David's hand. On the bright side, at least he did succeed in making sure David saw them.

Max put on a facade, "What do you want?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and craning his neck to look at the clock. He'd slept through the alarm it seemed, and David must have decided to let Max sleep in until he'd gotten through his morning routine. A decision that quickly dissipated once he'd been assaulted with torn magazine pages littered over the bath house.

David held out the pages for Max to see and Max pretended to be offended by the sight. "Geez, David! You know you can get fired for showing a kid your porn, right?" David didn't buy it.

"I know you're behind this. What were you _thinking_? Anyone could have seen these! Where did you even get them?" he demanded, standing up straight and crossing his arms. Max did his best to hold back the grin that wanted so badly to bloom across his face. Max shrugged.

"I was here all night last night, David. You were here. It couldn't have been me!" He reached beside himself to retrieve his hoodie and pulled it over his head.

"Don't lie to me, Max. You're not the only troublemaker at camp, but you're the only one with direct access to Gwen's room which is where I _suspect_ you got them."

"You can't chastise someone based on allegations, David," he retorted snidely as he climbed out of his cot and ruffled his hair out of bedhead mode. "How do you know it wasn't Nurf or, like, _anyone else_?" he huffed. "I'm not the only one who knows how to pick locks, idiot. And like I said," he turned back to David and smiled smugly, "I was here all night. You can't prove I wasn't."

David squinted and tightened his crossed arms. He cocked his head analytically.

"Don't think you're off the hook, do you understand?" Max's smirk grew. He shoved his hands in his front pocket. "I know you did this. And someone must have saw you, even if neither Gwen or myself did."

"Don't be so sure, Davey," Max taunted. He grabbed his morning bathroom supplies and moved to the door. "Come on, it's past time for morning rounds. You know what happens when I don't get my coffee."

Staring him down as he walked past, David left the room with his megaphone and dropped the torn pages in the trash. Max followed suit behind him.

He didn't quite understand it. David's fury meant something with his plan had went awry. There'd been nothing in his face that suggested he did anything besides gather up all the pages and march directly back to the cabin to scold him. Max would have seen it. His face would have been read, his breaths shallow, his body language shameful - _something_ , and not a single one of those things were evident in his demeanor. And based on the time, which had been about eight minutes after, there was no way he could have done anything in that time. David's alarm goes off at seven o' clock sharp, eight minutes would have been only enough time to walk there and back and given about a minute or two to hunt and gather all the pages.

Max stared down into the watery, undercooked bowl of oatmeal and fumed silently as he deliberated on how and _why_ that could have failed.

As Neil and Nikki approached the table with their trays, they noticed how exasperated Max was with the day already. Violent and murderous waves of rage radiated off of him like heat. Nikki put her tray down in front of him and smiled. She placed an elbow on the table and rested her cheek in her hand.

"Max, why do you look ready to die today?"

"Nikki!" Neil scolded, warning her that Max was likely not in the mood to talk.

"It's David, _as always,_ " he hissed, stabbing his knife into the wooden table. He grit his teeth and growled lowly. "Stupid bastard is kicking me out tonight. And I can't seem to crack him. I thought I had it last night!"

"What happened?" Neil inquired as he sipped at his morning coffee. Max shook his head.

"I mean, for fuck's sake, he completely ignored the naked girls I left all around the bathroom! Like, who does that?" Max threw his arms up in aggravation.

"Maybe he's gay," Nikki said, grabbing her bowl and eating out of it face-first. Neil snickered and went for the orange on the side of his tray.

Max froze. _Gay_. The dancing magazine was of a straight couple grinding, but that did happen to include a male. Or maybe the act itself simply incited the reaction out of him. _Gay_. That was it. He never noticed David looking at Gwen in her swimsuit, but the way he fawned over Cameron Campbell with those simpering eyes, it was so obvious. David was gay. _Flamingly_ gay. It never even occurred to him as anything other than a joke or sneaking suspicions.

"Of course!" he exclaimed, drawing attention from others in the Mess Hall, including David. Max leaned forward over the table and grabbed Nikki by the shoulders, shaking her and smiling wide. "Nikki, that's it! Why didn't I think of that before?" Max's eyes flicked to David, who was watching him questioningly. Max produced a shit-eating grin and lowered his voice to where only Neil and Nikki could hear him, "keep an eye on David for me. There's something I need to find."

"Caaaan do!" Nikki saluted as Max released her and took off running out the Mess Hall doors. She turned around and fabricated a pair of binoculars that she focused straight on David.

The doors swung shut behind him as Max fled the scene, running as fast as he could back to the counselor's cabin and picking his way back inside. David had not yet had the chance to put away Max's things as they went straight to breakfast after the morning rounds, but Max didn't go to David's room at all. Instead, he went straight for Gwen's and was inside in a matter of seconds.

He tore through her magazines, looking for anything kind of male erotica he could find. 'Kevin Climb' magazines, 'Pork Illustrated', and finally he came across the filth among garbage. A hellborn grin darkened Max's face as he held up the latest issue of 'PlayLady' magazine.

David was going down.

But Nikki could only hold him off for so long, so Max stuffed the magazine under his shirt and headed back to the Mess Hall, making sure to lock back the doors behind him.

...

Max managed to slip out of the Moon Walking 101 camp that day just before lunch. Magazine in tow, he scurried into the Mess Hall in search of David's afternoon planning clipboard.

He settled down at the counselor's table where David had his clipboard waiting along with two tea bags and his favourite pen. The papers in his clipboard included a list of the morning activities, a complete list of all the Camp Campbell activities, a spreadsheet for time management, a photo of Cameron Campbell himself ( _gaaayy_ , Max thought to himself with a smirk), and his formula for the successful reformation of Max - Max had to take a moment to laugh and fight the urge to write 'like hell' on it.

From under his hoodie, Max retrieved the magazine he'd nicked from Gwen's room and opened it on the table before him. The pictures inside were actually on the tame side from what he could tell. The first few pages were simply a few smallish men dressed in skimpy effeminate clothing. Some of them were with a larger man, usually in an ownership position. Max shook his head and picked one of the latter to place in David's unsolicited possession. He tore it out and hid it between today's activities and the full activity list so that when David tried to decide on what to include for the day, he'd be confronted with a hulking mass of a man, shirtless and firmly clutching the jaw of his lingerie-wearing bottom bitch.

Max stuffed the magazine back under his hoodie and got up to leave when an idea hit him. He turned back and rearranged David's clipboard to include the picture of Cameron Campbell on top of the magazine page so that David would get an eyefull of both and automatically associate them with each other. Max smirked, satisfied with his handiwork. Boy he was clever. With that, he left the crime scene and headed back to the stupid activity to reduce suspicion.

Half an hour later, the lunch bell rang out. David wiped the sweat from his brow and cheerily herded everyone in the direction of the Mess Hall.

"Good work, everyone! I'm so proud of you all! Saw some real sick moves today!"

"For the love of god, don't say that," Max gagged. David ignored him and continued leading everyone along.

Everyone lined up for their serving as usual, the counselors in the back as per usual to allow every kid to eat first. Max was last in line, right in front of David and Gwen. He listened with a smug smirk as David babbled about what a great day it was and how he was so proud of all his campers to Gwen who clearly was not paying attention. When Max finally got his lunch tray, he turned around to face David who's sentence stopped short when he noticed Max staring at him.

"Have a nice lunch, Davey," he said snidely. David's smile died and Max felt that familiar bubbly feeling in his gut. He gripped his tray a little harder and grinned wider before walking away. David watched him, unable to take anything Max says at face value. Especially when he makes that face. But David decides to think better of it and cautiously called out to him.

"You too, Max!" he croaked, now slightly fearful.

David and Gwen received their lunches from the Quartermaster and went to their table.

Max never stopped watching David that whole lunch period. His eyes were glued to that man harder than they'd been all week. His victory was just centimeters away underneath a single page of David's clipboard and he didn't even know it yet. He'd entirely forgotten to eat and didn't notice when Nikki slipped the cardboard pizza and fruit cup from his tray for herself. Even Neil directly asking Max what he'd done this time didn't snap him back to reality.

Forty-five minutes tick by fast when you're in a trance. Before he knew it, everyone had emptied out of the lunchroom save for him and David. David was always the last to finish his lunch, always taking the time to eat slowly so that he was fuller. Idiot.

But soon the Quartermaster emerged from the kitchen to bring the kettle of boiling water over to David's teacup. David smiled and thanked him, then proceeded to steep his tea.

Max tapped his foot impatiently. _Hurry up and find it already!_

David put his earbuds in and chose his almanac for the afternoon. Max chewed at his bottom lip. He reached for his pen and rested his chin in his hand, looking over the morning activities. Max leaned forward in anticipation. David shifted the pages. Max grinned, holding his breath. David's eyes widened. His jaw slacked open and a blush bloomed over his cheeks.

"Uh..." His eyes hung on the images. Neither rage nor disgust crossed his face. Max knew he was imagining Campbell because what _did_ cross his face was something a lot closer to _panic_.

He grit his teeth and glanced around the room. The moment his eyes landed on Max and caught his conniving grin, they darted away.

Oh _yeah_. This reaction was much different from seeing those girls. David was _definitely_ gay.

"Max..." David began tentatively.

"David," Max responded.

"Are you responsible for this?"

"Why David!" Max said, a theatrical hand over his chest at the accusation, "What ever do you mean?" He couldn't accuse him without proof, they'd been over that already.

"This is so inappropriate. You can't-"

"What is?" Max grinned from ear to ear. David's chest tightened.

"Leaving... _that_ kind of picture..."

" _What_ kind of picture, David?"

David's nails dug at the wood of the table ever so slightly. He couldn't say it. Max knew that. He couldn't accuse Max of leaving porn in his clipboard not only because there was no proof, but also because if Max hadn't left it there, it would be just as inappropriate to tell a camper what he had in his possession with no proof that David himself didn't put it there. And that would really be violating some rules and not to mention basic decency.

"You don't understand the boundaries you're crossing."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I've been the image of a model camper all week. Haven't left your side. What boundaries am I crossing?"

"I'm..." David bit his lip, "going to the bathroom for a moment. Stay here." He stood up with his clipboard.

"But it's free time. I don't have to stay here if I don't want to."

"Fine. Leave if you want." David struggled to find words. "G-Go find Neil and Nikki and wreak havoc on everything you touch, but I need some time alone."

Max could do nothing but smile as David strode out the front doors. A fire blazed in his belly at the absolute power trip he got from this. His palms curled into fists. God it felt so good.

He watched the clock intently, carefully timing his next move. Minutes ticked away until Max got up from his seat and followed David's path to the counselor's cabin. He wouldn't dare try anything in the bathrooms, especially in broad daylight, where anyone could walk in at any time. David wasn't entirely stupid. And as Max picked his way into the cabin and stood outside David's bedroom door, the soft moans coming from inside told him that he was right.

Max's eyes drooped shut. He stood with his back against the wall just outside the door and crossed his arms. He could hear David panting Campbell's name in hushed breaths. The obsession he had with that man was straight up pathetic.

"Sir..." David sighed from inside. Max bit his tongue and exhaled a little harder than he meant to. His body began to tingle.

"Hurry up, jerkass," Max muttered to himself, impatient. He'd timed this for a reason.

David's moans grew choppy and strained. Campbell's name must have reached Max's ears a hundred more times at least with the way it gushed from his's needy lips. He was getting close. Max stood up straight, smirked, and knocked.

"Hey, Daaaviid," he called. The air went silent. "I'm bored," Max continued, "It's no fun out here without you to entertain me," though David was actually doing a fantastic job at entertaining Max right now.

"Go play with your friends, Max," David responded, short of breath. "Now's not a good time."

"Why not? You're supposed to be planning activities in the Mess Hall right now."

"I, uh, decided to move it here."

_Don't lie_.

"Is that so? Well I don't see why it'd be a bad time if that's _all_ you're doing. Be a good host and invite me in. You wouldn't want to encourage me to force my way in, after all, would you?"

"Max, I'm serious. I need my time alone. Go play elsewhere. Please."

"Mm, nah I don't think so. Let me in, David. Last warning."

David's sigh of exasperation meant mission accomplished. Max stood back smirking as he waited for David to open the door.

But it never happened.

Instead, Max was faced with a clunking noise and a stern "No" from David as he was brazenly barricaded out. Unbelievable. Max's jaw dropped. He almost had to hand it to David for being so resilient. But he wouldn't. Because he was pissed.

"Oh no, that's not going to work, Davey," Max snarled. He stormed out the front door and trudged through the decorative bushes to David's window. The curtains were drawn and he was too short to see in anyway, but that didn't stop him from jumping up and climbing onto the sill where he could lift open the bottom pane.

A shriek sounded from the other side and as Max forced his way in, David had just barely managed to cover up with a pillow.

"Max!" The clipboard, which David scrambled to flip back to the front page, had been drawn back to the magazine page and was lying next to David.

"You didn't seriously think that was going to work, did you? Because I don't want you to forget who it is you're dealing with here," Max growled, jumping down from the sill and into David's room. He dusted himself off and bared his teeth at David.

"Max, this is way out of line. I explicitly told you to leave me alone and you break in here anyway."

"An unlocked window is an open window. Now if you want me to leave, you'll have to remove me because I'm not going anywhere."

David glared down at the pillow and clenched his fists, "You'd just weasel your way back in, anyhow."

"Hey now, look at you! You're starting to catch on!" Max falsely praised, softening to a smug smile. David pinched the bridge of his nose and covered himself with his blanket so he could wiggle his way back into his shorts.

"Alright, what do you want now that you're here?" he grumbled.

"Told you, I'm bored."

"And watching me plan activities is somehow more exciting than playing with your friends?"

"Sure, whatever," Max shrugged. It wasn't like he could reject his excuse. Once David's shorts were back on, he faced the problem of hiding his obvious erection. David resigned to finish his planning there in his bed.

He pulled his covers up and lay back against his pillow with a pen he retrieved from his nightstand. Max settled in on the cot that hadn't been removed yet.

"Oh, and one more thing-" David looked over to the little monster sitting across the room, "if you expect me to keep this a secret, I expect to continue sleeping here. Got it?"

David refused to reply. But it was as much a sign of submission as straight up agreeing would be. Max's blood coursed with heat. A breath welled up in his chest that he exhaled in satisfaction. He reclined back into his cot and retrieved his gameboy from under his pillow. David wouldn't say anything. He was already well past defeated.

...

The next incident happened the next morning just after breakfast.

When David finished planning activities for yesterday afternoon and the morning after, Max badgered David until he broke to tell him what 'tomorrow had in store' (complete with feigned innocence). Then, during the night, Max stealthily slipped out with his flashlight and the magazine in tow and headed for the storage shed where David would be gathering the necessary tools for Sword Forging tomorrow.

After picking his way into the shed, Max pulled out the magazine from under his hoodie and turned to the missing page. Behind that one was one marginally cruder, but Max wanted something better. He skipped about five pages and came to the first page he'd seen with a fully naked male on display.

Max's heart skipped a beat. He stared down at the book, illuminated by his flashlight. This image depicted a brawny man wearing nothing but a thin rubber ring around his cock - Max wondered what it was for - and a muscly, yet less so than the other man, guy with a hard-on in a lacy garter.

For a moment, Max just stared. His eyes flicking between the two men. He didn't understand why his body felt slightly weird. Neither of these men were appealing to him, but still something resonated in his lower stomach that he...

Max shook it off and ripped out the page. This would get David for sure. He taped it to the wall directly in front of the door where he wouldn't miss it and took a breath. He then scampered swiftly back to the counselor's cabin where he curled into his cot and marinated on recent events until he fell asleep.

As luck would have it, Max's plan went smooth as silk. As per usual, he trailed behind David as the man left the Mess Hall and went to the storage shed for needed supplies. He pulled open the door to the unlocked shed (Max jumped when he realized he'd forgotten to lock it back, but luckily David was oblivious) and was assaulted with the image of two naked men right before his eyes. He let out a tiny yelp and threw the door shut again on reflex. He glanced at Max then back to the door, hoping the kid hadn't seen it. There was no point in accusing him of it, because once again, Max had managed to elude his detection and leave no evidence.

David's grip tightened on the handle of the shed and he sucked in a deep breath.

"Max?" he said lowly.

"Yes, David?" Max smiled.

"Would you do me a favour?" Max's smile diminished. He squinted and cocked his head.

"Depends."

David hesitated. "I forgot the heat up the forge." Max furrowed his brow and looked toward the area between the trees where smoke rose in clouds into the sky. He raised one eyebrow then turned back to David. "Please go tell Gwen she can give an opening lesson on lighting it- or something." Despite his obvious lie, Max agreed. David let out a breath of relief. Just before he was out of sight, Max saw David opening back up the shed and stepping slowly inside.

Once the door shut behind him, Max turned promptly around on his heel and headed back. He took his time, taking slow steps with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face.

After those initial four days where he did not attempt around Max, David's nerves had been building up. His attitude grew shorter, his patience wearing thin. Max took advantage of that. The days were repetitive, each time cracking David's resolve a little more.

Max listened to David's erratic breathing inside the shed. His panting named no one in particular this time. Perhaps for fear of being caught again.

And right on cue, Max's body began heating up. He exhaled a heavy breath at the tingling that pricked up in his arms and abdomen. His legs felt... funny. Geez, what was going on? Max propped himself against the storage shed door with his arms straight out rested his head against it, granting him clearer audio. The slickness of David's cock forcing its way through his fingers was nearly thunderous to Max's sharpened ears. He tore at his bottom lip with adrenaline coursing through his body.

David breathed out a particularly loud moan. Then, without even thinking about it, Max's hips rolled forward.

His eyes widened, jaw slacking open. Did he just...? Fuck. That... was entirely accidental. But, he knew what David was in there jerking off to. He could still see the magazine page burned into his mind. And he'd listened to David too many times to feel guilty for indulging just once.

Max stared down at his jeans and hissed under his breath at the suggestion of arousal. _Goddamit_. A hesitant hand drew up to where his jeans strained at the zipper and then stopped.

Was he really about to touch himself to David? His teeth grit, stomach twisting. That's kinda sick. And gay as fuck.

And then David moaned again, "Ahh gosh- please... I need to- aah- I need... so bad," and Max's hand snapped to his crotch without his permission.

"Oh _fuck_ ," Max exhaled low and gutteral, digging his nails into the wood and dropping to his knees. His words made it out quiet enough, but his mind, too rampant with thoughts of sex, forgot not to drag his nails down the door. Everything went deathly silent. Max slipped his palm away from his crotch and covered the evidence with his hoodie (a much better job than David did hiding his boner).

Before David could get the satisfaction of having the upper hand here, Max took a breath and tried to sound neutral.

"Hey, Daaaviid."

...

David was breaking.

As the page numbers in the magazine increased so did their level of filth. From guys shoving their cocks into the mouths of other guys to straight up gay sex, Max left plenty of little reminders to David over the next week exactly what he was missing every time. And David's patience grew paper thin with him. He still couldn't pinpoint anything directly to him, but they both knew what was going on.

He began ignoring Max's comments and questions, didn't bother him when he tried to sit out of activities, and even once flat out shut the door in Max's face when they were turning in for the night. Max wanted to be angry but the truth was he just felt so _fucking_ _good_. His scheming came to fruition. David suffered the same hell he faced the first night after he caught him, and endured the continued hell of aggravation and disdain that Max faced every single day at that god forsaken camp. So all he had to say about it was: eat shit and die, asshole.

Everything that moved was turning him on. David was being set off by the littlest things at this point. The day before, someone drew a crude dick in the dirt and Max had to kick it into high gear not to lose David before he made it to the broom closet and shut himself in. And earlier today, all Max did was call for David from the sidelines of the activity he was running (to make fun of him for how stupid he looked) and he barely got all of David's name out before David excused himself from the activity to 'get something' from his room. Max was ecstatic. Especially when Gwen stopped him from leaving in the middle of a teamwork activity and Max didn't even have to lift a finger.

Lunchtime came again and David looked a little worse for wear. He wasn't eating, just had his head in his hands, drooped over his tray and not moving. Gwen kept occasionally glancing over to Max's table and Max knew David had told her what a nightmare it'd been spending the past two weeks with him never leaving his side. Probably didn't hear the full details, but nonetheless.

He couldn't help but be cocky about the whole ordeal. After two weeks of following David around and watching his every move, it felt scarily good to watch him fall apart.

David brought his head up for all of a second, looking directly at Max, and was beat right back down by Max's disparaging grin as he mouthed the words ' _Hey, Daaaviid!_ '

"Max!" Neil shouted for the fourth time.

" _What_?" Max shot back, accidentally angrier than he intended.

"Dude, this unhealthy obsession with David has gotten way out of hand."

"Yeah, you're turning into a David zombie." Nikki added, holding her stale mac-and-cheese covered fork out at him.

"You've practically moved in with him!" Neil continued.

"Calm down, everything's fine. I'll be back in our tent before you know it," Max dismissed, taking a bite out of his unripe apple. "I'm just waiting for him to break and then everything'll go back to normal."

"What exactly kind of 'break' are you even looking for?" asked Neil. "He already looks pretty broken to me."

At Neil's comment, Max looked up to see David's unoccupied chair at the counselor's table. "Wait goddamit, where did he go?" Max stood up so fast out of his chair, it fell backwards and clattered against the floor. He didn't even do anything this time! This was completely of his own volition.

"Chill Max," Neil groaned. "He went to the back storage room, it's not like he- and he's gone."

Max rushed into the kitchen to follow David. That stupid stilt-legged bastard was already well out of sight. Max approached the store-room door quietly and cracked the door to peek inside.

Jackpot.

Someone looked desperate.

All day, David had been putting up his best front. Making his best effort to look put together in hopes that eventually Max would let his guard down. Leave his side or look away for at least five seconds so that he could slip away under his radar and make off to a hiding spot. This had gone on for way too long.

Max could see David's ankles sticking out from behind a crate where he seemed to be 'hiding'. Max pulled the door open a little more and crept inside. He stood against the door frame with his arms crossed and a smirk painted across his face as he waited out David's pathetic attempt to utilize his moment of privacy where Max had taken his eyes off him.

Five minutes. He only needed five minutes. Any longer and Max would surely find him.

Oh David. Poor idiotic, David. _If he only knew_.

David heaved a breath as his hand hastily worked himself out of his shorts. For the duration of a heartbeat, David was apprehensive, fearful that Max might find him like this but he was desperate. And in the next moment, he was stroking himself quickly to hardness.

No time to work himself over, all he could see was his end goal. David pumped himself feverishly, taking stifled breaths each time his thumb swiped over the head. Tiny moans escaped his lips, whimpers almost.

Max's shoulders dropped, his eyes fell shut with his smirk devolving into a shameful lip-bite. He inhaled slowly, clenching his fists, and then exhaled and unclenched. A ragged breath. As he stood there, absorbing David's sounds of pleasure, Max was perhaps a bit unaware of the increasing tightness in his jeans. Or maybe he was aware of that and what he _wasn't_ aware of was the fleeing of his 'steel-willed' mindset. At some point, listening to David's moans had become satisfying. Enjoyable, even. How disgusting. How _incredible_.

Max's hand wandered. From the dynamically clenching fist at his side, it hesitantly drifted to the needy spot between his legs. It came to a rest against the tenting fabric, unsure. But with another one of David's glorious hushed moans, he felt it twitch and that prompted an almost involuntary reaction out of him to press his hand harder against his growing erection.

_Wow_. Geez. Fuck. This was so wrong. God and yet it was so good. Max let out a silent breath. _Goddamn_.

His eyes popped open at the sound of a particularly familiar moan. That delicious one when David was right on the edge and literally seconds from tipping over. Max crossed his arms again, complacent smirk returning. He shifted his hoodie to cover up the tent in his jeans.

Max cleared his throat.

David froze.

And then just barely, almost inaudible, Max heard him growl under his breath.

Max grinned and opened his mouth.

But what meant to come out in his typical self-satisfied tone...

Maybe came out as something a little more on the side of _lust_.

"Hey, _Daaaviid_."

...

Having David break right before his very eyes was satisfying, but something just wasn't enough.

Max stared down at his cold and probably fake chicken strips, fists clenched at each side of his tray. He didn't have to bother watching David because the man never tried anything twice in the same day and after earlier, Max was sure David was sufficiently spooked.

So as he drifted into another realm of mind, Max radiated waves of indignation that kept Neil and Nikki from questioning him. He was acting weird anyway. Had been for weeks. They ate separately and chatted quietly with each other.

Everything was falling into place. David was more broken than he'd ever seen him, but... Max clenched his teeth hard - he wanted him _shattered_.

But what exactly did that even mean? Neil had a point - Max had no idea. What was he even looking for that this wasn't enough?

He glanced up to David. The man looked close to tears. He sat with a hand propping up his chin as he stared down into his dinner as well. David glanced up to Max. He looked pathetic. Max returned the look instead with vindictive eyes. They both separated gazes and returned to their varying levels of brooding.

So what would be the deciding factor that would quench his thirst? What could David do that was so bad, it warranted forgiveness?

Max spent the rest of dinnertime like this, suffering in silence. Not a single bit of his food had been touched by the time evening activities started. The last activities of the day were always a lot more laid back and usually involved 'bonding' time around the campfire. David would set up scary story telling or group time-killer games or play his guitar. But tonight, David's demeanor was entirely lifeless. Max sat next to him on the log. He elbowed David in the side to get his attention.

"What's wrong, camp man? Not feeling so great?" he taunted. David ignored him, keeping his head down in his hands.

None of the usual nighttime activities happened that night. David kept his head down the entire time while Gwen attempted to substitute for David's usual overachieving effort. Underwhelming scary stories became vampire love stories, time-killing games became gossip time, and David's guitar playing was replaced by a soft-core fashion lecture. The varying teaching styles didn't bring about different camper behavior, however. Everyone remained exactly as apathetic as always. Some things never change.

Suddenly, David stood up. His arms dangled listlessly in front of him.

"Gwen," he began. Max's blood ran cold. What was he about to do? His muscles tightened at the ready to cut down whatever plan David thought he was going to get away with. "Keep Max busy." He turned and started for the bath house.

Max's jaw dropped open in astonishment. His hand shot out as David walked past and grabbed the skinny bastard by the knee.

"The hell do you think you're going?" he seethed, squeezing and digging his nails into David's flesh. The sting made David hiss under his breath. David didn't answer him. He tore Max's hand away and marched on even faster. Max jumped up to race after him but found he was going nowhere. Gwen suspended him by the hood.

"Max, I don't know what you're doing to him, but enough's enough. Leave David alone." Max kicked and swatted at her.

"You have nothing to do with this. Put me down, he's getting away!" he snarled, pushing hard against her in effort to free himself. Max's anger quickly devolved into panic as David got further and further away.

Neil spoke up, "For real, Max, this whole thing is getting kind of old. Can't you just come roast marshmallows with us-"

" _No_. _Put me down,_ " he shouted, voice cracking.

"I don't think so." Gwen gave Max an icy look before turning to Nurf. "Nurf, hold him still and don't let go."

"Why should I?" Nurf snorted, eying Max. He crossed his arms.

"I, uh, I'll let you have one of your knives back, I guess."

"Five."

"Two."

"Deal." Gwen dropped Max in the empty space between Nurf and Preston and instantly Nurf's meaty hand closed around Max's forearm uncomfortably tight. Max scraped and tore at Nurf's hand to release it, but he held fast, chuckling powerfully. Max bit his bottom lip and stared in the direction David had been. He was out of sight now. A chill of unease settled down on Max's shoulders, nagging at him to follow. He couldn't.

Five minutes later, Max was even more restless than he started off as. David must have been close by now. He grew antsy. (Nurf grew sweaty.) He was going to miss his chance; after two long weeks of resolute shadowing, all his work was going to disappear down the drain with David's orgasm. He stared desperately at the bath house and the lone light that shone from it. Nervous energy had him practically vibrating in his seat. He chewed at his bottom lip and whimpered.

Five turned into ten and then into fifteen. David was still gone. Max had the passing thought that David was legitimately showering, but it left as fast as it came when his desperation and panic silenced it.

Nurf yawned beside him and one final desperate thought occurred to Max. Before he had the chance to deliberate on it, his mouth erupted the words hysterically.

"Nurf, listen to me. If you let me go and cover for me, I will get you _all_ your knives back."

Nurf seemed to consider this, giving Max a thin ray of hope.

"Hm, is that all?"

Max glanced back to the bath house and bit his lip almost hard enough to break skin. His heart pounded. This had almost entirely surpassed revenge and was a straight up obsession, but none of that mattered right now. He could hate himself later. Right now, _David_.

"Okay, okay, I'll do _anything_ you want. You name it."

"How do I know you won't skip out on me?"

Max kept his voice down, but said as violently as possible, "Nurf, I will _literally kiss your fucking ass_ if you _please_ let me go right now," he snarled through grit teeth, clenching his hand into a claw.

Nurf pointed one of his pale sausages at him, "I want my knives back, cigarettes, three lighters, and for you to cover for me while I bully people and smoke for the rest of the summer."

Without thinking for even a moment, Max spat out the word 'done' and Nurf released him. Max took off like a jackrabbit into the night, barreling toward the bath house as fast as his legs would carry him.

He came to a skidding stop in the dirt as he approached the building. Steam rose from the screen vents in the roof. David was still in the shower. Hope flared in Max's chest as he carefully entered the building and listened for sound cues.

The shower roared, swallowing up anything else there might have been, but Max pressed forward, keeping quiet until he had some sign. It didn't matter if it was good or bad, but something.

He stepped in, walking hesitantly forward. If David had already finished, his little game was over. If he hadn't, well, Max wasn't sure, but he was sure David was at the end of his rope. He'd get his answer, if that was the case.

Just past the sinks, Max's ears pricked up. His chest welled with excitement. Adrenaline coursing through every vein in his body.

David _moaned_. And even better, directly following was a frustrated whimper. Max's nerves lit up.

His mouth automatically formed the words for him. Not a thought crossed his mind as drew a breath and drawled in a sultry voice.

" _Hey, Daaaviid._ "

A strained groan erupted from the shower. Or. Perhaps... could it have been a moan? Max pondered.

That was definitely a moan. Because it was followed promptly by rapid breaths.

"N-No," David rasped from down the narrow hallway.

Max dragged his fingertips against the log walls as he stepped further and further down the hall leading to the showers.

"Aw, don't be like that," Max spoke in dulcet tones. "I just couldn't bear to be away from you." It wasn't a lie. The toilet stalls passed in his peripheral until he arrived at the large handicapped shower. Steam rolled out from under the door and rose through the ceiling above. "I agreed to do so much shit for Nurf so he'd let me go." David whimpered from behind the door and the shower curtain beyond it. The locks on the shower stalls were not ones Max could break into. Simple latch locks, strong and unpickable. But locks didn't count for much when there was a gaping hole at the bottom of the door one could easily crawl under. Max wasted no time letting himself into David's shower stall. All that separated them now was the thin plastic shower curtain. Max settled down across the large stall and reclined against the wall. He chuckled and smirked, "I was _desperate_."

Another strained moan. From here, it was almost deafeningly loud. Max bit his lip and took in a big, gulping breath of the steamy air. The familiar tingling in his lower stomach flared up, his jeans began tightening. Max exhaled a relieved sigh. _God yes_. He was terrified he almost missed this, but whatever was stopping David was his saving grace. His hand took its dutiful place at the crotch of his jeans.

"Please," David whined, sounding close to tears. Max's cock twitched a little more upward. "Please just leave."

"Hah," Max laughed in a breath. His hand rubbed against the prominent bulge that grew at his waist. "I don't think so."

David moaned again, loud and needy. A clunking noise came from behind the curtain. David dropped his head against the shower wall. Max envisioned him, hunched over and jerking as fast as his hand would move.

"Max, just..." He wasn't being subtle anymore. Or he couldn't. Probably the latter. Max listened to the way the water slicked around his cock as he caressed it behind closed curtains, and his heavy, panting breaths and heaving moans as he drew closer and closer.

"Come on out," Max taunted. David's moan set his body on fire, his hands working on autopilot as they undid the button to his jeans, unzipped the zipper, and pulled himself out into the open. He started fast, too ruined by David's sounds to waste any time fooling around. Whatever mind he had left, completely dissolved. "You've been in that shower a while."

Strangled whimpers and whines echoed off the walls and were swallowed hungrily by Max.

David's chest heaved and locked up. His throat closing as the end finally came near. He was so close.

"Max, I-I'm," he took a sharp breath, trying to find any words at all, "I'm almost there!"

It didn't hit him what he'd said until he heard Max moan in response. David froze.

"Oh my god." Max said, astonished. "I didn't think you'd actually do it. Wow, David, that's kinda sick."

And there it was.

The break.

The shower curtains drew back slowly. Max and David locked eyes. Max's grin spread wide. He was slumped against the wall, dick in hand, skin probably reddening even at his skin tone - he must have been a sight for David's cock to twitch _that_ hard.

David swallowed hard. He stepped out of the shower. No words were exchanged, but Max felt it on the air, in David's eyes, in his own entire body. He knew what was going to happen next. And oh _god_ did he want it.

He began undressing. His hoodie hit the floor in the corner of the room, followed by that stupid mandatory yellow shirt. David started forward. His eyes were so hollow. He was a shell of a man. Broken. Shattered. Desperate. _Fuck_ it was so hot.

In a flurry of desire and lust, Max shed the rest of his clothes and as David approached him, he lunged into David's arms, lips immediately latching onto his neck. David let out the most relieved moan he ever had in his life as they stumbled back into the shower together. Max's cock twitched against David's chest.

Hot water raced down Max's body and dampened his hair. David squeaked as he nipped and pulled at his throat. His hands were shaking and digging into Max's skin. He was nervous. Scared - terrified, probably, but whatever carnal part of his brain that had broken out of its cage had taken the reins and would not stop until they finished. And Max wouldn't let it if it tried.

"Max," he breathed heavy. "I-I'm so sorry. Can... can I...?"

"Ohh _fuck_ , David," Max moaned ostentatiously, wrapping a hand around his little cock and jerking it hard and fast. "Just fucking do it. Stop giving a shit already and just fuck me. I know you want to. And fuck I want it too."

With those words, the last of David's resolve crumbled into oblivion and Max's roaring hot back met the cool shower wall. David's fingers fumbled in his mouth for a few short moments before they prodded lustfully at Max's ass. Max's legs rested around David's waist, his hands clutched tight to both David's arms. He bit his lip, staring at the digits and moaning as David pushed them in. _God_. His hand tightened around his cock, hips attempting to buck upward.

David looked so focused. His brows knit, he bit his bottom lip and stared intently as his fingers moved in and out of the other, shooting tiny sparks of pleasure all throughout Max's little body.

"Fuck, David," Max rasped, digging his nails harder into David's arms. David let out a sharp breath and hunched forward slightly, trembling. His fingers thrust deep into Max, causing him to arch and gasp. Max raised his brows. That really turned David on. He grinned and raked his nails down David's arms in a swift motion. The rattling moan that tore from David's lips echoed off the walls, music to Max's ears. Max sighed with satisfaction, it felt so good.

Another finger introduced itself into Max's body. Max tipped his head back and moaned, letting David open him up. It was all so new to him. The stretch, the pleasure, the feeling; Max had experimented with touching himself before but never in his life did he think he'd ever be gay enough to one day take it up the ass.

David was very careful, despite his condition. In the absence of proper lubricant, he substituted with conditioner. It wasn't the preferred option, but it would do the trick. He hoped Max wasn't allergic. He would take extra good care of him if he turned out to be. Max's pleasured breaths as he applied it encouraged him to keep going. Eventually, David deemed Max ready and slicked up his own cock before pressing the head at his entrance.

The absolute terror behind David's eyes was priceless.

He wanted this. He wanted this _now_. Max lurched forward in David's grasp and slammed a hand so hard across his face, his hand stung. " _Do it you weak bastard._ "

He grit his teeth at the stretching burn as David thrust in, a desperate whine of pain and desire erupting from his throat. Max echoed it with one of his own, his ass pulsing around David's twitching cock.

" _Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck,_ " Max's hand moved furiously around his straining cock. Fuck it was so good. So, so fucking good.

David's cock rested against a spot inside him that left a heavy pleasure in his lower stomach. He didn't move, stunned; petrified. Not until Max moved.

Eager to move things along, Max did his best to rock his hips against David in that position. His hands coiled around David's pathetic little throat and squeezed as he attempted to fuck himself on David's cock. He could feel the breath rattle in David's throat under his hands, and he felt the way David's hips jerked forward. _Masochist_.

It seemed to work. Once he bucked forward, David couldn't stop. He started off slow, careful not to hurt the other, and slowly worked up to a rhythm. Max wondered if he'd ever done this before. Probably a lame ass virgin. Hah, loser.

David and Max moaned in sync, the sound too loud to be swallowed up by the roar of the shower. Every one of David's heaving thrusts against that cluster of nerves deep inside Max brought about another harmony of pleasured cries and brought them both closer to the edge. So when David spoke unexpectedly, Max almost didn't catch it.

"Max," he huffed, staring down into Max's half-mast eyes, "will you... will you say it? Just one more time. Please." It was hard to think through David's strong thrusts, but Max searched his mind for what he could possibly be talking about.

Then it occurred to him. Max had created a Pavlovian response in David. He chuckled in a breath, a guttural moan managing from his throat.

"Fucking," breath, "pathetic," he scoffed, shaking his head. David bit his lip. Max's grin spread wide and he stared directly into David's soul.

" _Hey, Daaaviid._ "

And there it was, the high pitched whine that signified David's end. He pulled out- tried. Max locked his legs around David's hips and forced him back inside, sinking his claws into the abused flesh of David's throat.

"Don't you fucking _dare_ pull out."

David was unable to stop it. The torrent of pressure that had built inside of him became too much and released all at once, emptying its entire contents inside of Max. The blood hot flesh, twitching and straining inside him; and David's face, overwhelmed with ecstasy, sent Max hurtling over the edge. "Fuck fuck fuck," he moaned, hips jerking reflexively in his hand as Max's release spilled out over his fingers and dripped onto his stomach, quickly washed away by the shower.

For a moment, neither of them moved. Max's limbs went limp, his jaw slacking open. His sexual awakening had hit him like a train, knocking all function out of his little body. His heavy breaths mingled with David's who was quaking in his spot, _finally_ satisfied after so many ruined attempts.

They gazed at each other through half-lidded eyes, reveling in their afterglow.

After some time, David dropped to his knees and set Max down gently on the shower floor. Max was still incapacitated and completely ragdolled.

"Max..." David began, casting his eyes away in shame.

"Shut up," Max interrupted, still breathing heavily. "Shut your stupid fucking mouth and just enjoy it." David knit his brows together and took a deep breath of the steamy shower air. Max's heavy eyes drooped shut. He smiled. Mission accomplished.

They laid like that for ten minutes, David softly caressing Max's arms. Guilt weighed down on his shoulders, despite Max telling him not to feel that way. So he cared for him after the fact - tenderly cleaning him, washing his hair and wiping away what leaked out of him. The sight made him cringe, he felt sick to his stomach, but did not say what he felt in light of the fact that for once all summer, Max looked genuinely happy and at ease.

He was about to start on his own hair when the bath house front door creaked open and then clattered shut.

"David?" Gwen called, "Is Max in here? I don't know how he did it but..."

David went ghost white. He started to stutter out a response but Max lurched forward and grabbed him by the jaw, curling a hand over his mouth.

"Do not panic. Do you understand me?" Max growled in a whisper, deadpanning into David's eyes. "You're going to go out there and be fine." David's hysterical eyes flicked between Max's. "I showed up and then left without anything happening. I'll sneak out and be back in my tent before anyone heads back. No one will ever know. Are we clear?" David hesitated for a brief moment before nodding. Max dropped his hand and watched with daggering eyes as he fumbled for a sentence.

"N-No, he's..." he glanced at Max who made a cutthroat motion, "he stopped by but then left."

"Oh good," Gwen replied. "Glad to hear it. You okay in there?"

David swallowed hard and grinned nervously. "Yeah. I'm, uh, better." Max smirked at this and nodded at him in approval. David smiled weakly.

"Alright well, stop wasting all the hot water. The campers are gonna be pissed at you, you know?"

"I know," David admitted. He stood up to turn off the water. Max got up and stepped out. He stole David's towel to dry off. David didn't complain or stop him. Once he'd finished with it, he tossed it in David's direction and gathered up his clothes.

David looked away as Max dressed, attempting to have some form of respect for him yet. Max didn't bother ridiculing him for it. He'd had his fun.

Once he was clothed again, Max checked to make sure Gwen had left before bidding David a smug goodnight and crawling back out of the stall, leaving David standing there to marinate in everything that had happened.

He crept out into the night, unseen, and fetched his things from David's place before heading back to his tent and settling in for a long night of self-reflection.

His game was over. He'd shattered David.

So why wasn't he satisfied?


	5. Teleiophile

Dawn of the third day had come and gone. Max's plan worked. Three whole days later, he was still lounging in his tent eating stolen snacks from the pantry and playing his DS in his pajamas. David never bothered him; Gwen never bothered him. He was silently excused from every activity for three whole days straight.

And that gave him plenty of time to think. Two weeks ago his only goal was to get revenge on David and to never do another stupid camp activity again. That much had worked. And by all means it was awesome and great or whatever, but somehow - _somehow -_ it had turned into actively _lusting_ after David.

How it fucking devolved into that was completely out of his range of understanding, but there it was. Max was staring blankly at his game, not paying any attention because all he could fucking think about was David - 'What is David doing? Where is he at? Is he jerking off? His moans are goddamn addictive.'

But worst of them all was the infamous 'I _have_ to fuck him again.'

Max had lost count of the number of times he'd thought about it. He wanted it, and for some reason, he _needed_ it. Whatever mental hell Max was sure David was going through right now didn't matter. This wasn't even about revenge anymore. Max got his revenge. This was about desire.

Max clapped his DS shut. He rolled over onto his back and stared at the fabric ceiling. The game wasn't entertaining anymore. He hadn't been that interested in it to begin with when he opened it. A deep sigh left his chest and Max's eyes slipped shut. He breathed in deeply, biting his lip. _David_. _What was he doing?_ Max wanted to know so badly. Yet, it hadn't actually been that long since the dinner bell rang for the night. Chances were, he was probably just eating. Max felt a bit peckish himself, but didn't have much of an appetite with the mountain of desserts he stole from the Mess Hall curbing every whim of hunger.

He clenched and unclenched his fists with nervous energy, then reached for a chocolate pudding cup out of the pile.

After around about fourty-five minutes, the rustle of the tent flaps opening woke Max from his sugar coma. He hadn't noticed it'd gotten dark around him until Neil flicked on the lantern on. He rubbed the sleep from his short nap out of his eyes and greeted them.

Neil sat down on his cot and started gathering up his nighttime shower routine supplies.

"Status report?" Max asked, sitting up.

"Same as earlier. He just read the whole time he ate."

"You sure? You didn't notice him acting strangely at all?"

"Max, when are you gonna be done with this whole weird-ass obsession with David? It's really getting old at this point."

"I..." Max frowned and clenched his fists, averting his eyes.

"Neil's right, Max," Nikki added, "I'm tired of watching David for you. I wanna go back to hunting bugs and stuff during David's lame activities. When can I do my own thing again?"

"I don't know, alright?" Max grimaced, flopping back down and turning his back to Neil.

"Weren't you gonna like, 'break him' or whatever? What happened to that?" she asked.

"I already did," Max said, glaring at his pillow.

"What?!" Neil admonished. He pointed his hairbrush accusingly at Max, "Then what the hell are you having us stalk David for?"

Max didn't have a response. He huffed and sat silently as smoke poured from his ears and his face burned red. He didn't need to explain himself to them!

Neil scoffed at Max's lack of reply and tucked his supplies under his arm, "Let's go Nikki."

"Okay!" The girl grabbed her things and turned to Max. "You coming Max?"

Max stayed silent and Nikki frowned. She shrugged to Neil and they both left for the bath house.

When they were gone, Max rolled back over and stared at the space where they'd been. David would most likely be supervising the bathrooms with Gwen. And in a few long minutes, he would be heading off to the counselor's cabin for the night.

And with that, Max's patience ran out.

After everyone had piled in and out of the showers and Max's friends had come back to their tent, Max excused himself to the bathroom next. The walk was slightly shorter. Since that wasn't where he was going.

Max jumped up to the window sill of the counselor's cabin and steadied his grip. David was sitting on his bed in his ugly pine tree and bear pajamas, his stupid nose wedged in the aforementioned book. Almost worse than Gwen. He was a bit too far away for Max to see the title, but the cover had sunshine and smiley faces on it, so whatever it was had to be utterly stupid. Besides being focused, David looked kind of miserable. There was no colour to his face, he wasn't smiling, his knees were drawn up to his chest. His eyes even looked sad.

Max smirked. Satisfying.

He took a deep breath and dropped back down to the ground. His arms and legs tingled with anticipation as he padded up to the front door and knocked. His heart palpated. He listened to footsteps approach the door and unlock it. And then scowled at the sight of not-David. Gwen scowled back.

"What're you doing here, Max?" she asked accusingly.

"I need to talk to David," he said honestly for once.

"Look, just leave the poor guy alone. He exempted you from all activities, mandatory and not, so why don't you get lost?"

"I need to talk to David," Max repeated firmly. He was not going to explain himself.

"No. Go back to your tent."

Max strengthened his glare and squared his shoulders, rooting his feet to the doorstep. "I need to talk to David."

"If it's an emergency, you can talk to me. Otherwise, piss off."

"I need. To talk. To David." Max growled.

A tiny creaking noise sounded from inside and David's small voice spoke up.

"Gwen?" Gwen pinched her nose. "It's- It's okay. Let him in."

"You sure?" she glanced over her shoulder at David and then back to Max, "I don't trust him." Max sneered at her.

"Yeah. It's okay. We... need to talk."

She looked back down at Max, then stepped aside and crossed her arms, leaving the door open for Max to let himself in.

Shutting it behind himself, Max stared at David who was standing in his doorway, looking dead to the world. He couldn't even meet Max's eyes.

A heat welled up in Max's stomach. That broken look was... a _really_ good look on him. He shifted on his feet and glanced at Gwen, who was glaring as if to say 'you see what you've done?' Max smirked at her then steadied himself. Nobody said a word.

After some tense moments of silence, David cleared his throat and stepped out into the den, gently shutting the door behind him. Max raised his eyebrows. David gave him a nod of acknowledgment and ushered him to the armchairs by the TV. Gwen stood where she was at in the corner and leaned against the wall to supervise.

Max climbed into Gwen's seat as David settled into his own. They remained sitting in silence for almost a full minute before David gathered the courage to say anything.

"So..." he began. Max blinked languidly. "Have, uh, you been enjoying your down time... Max?"

"Okay," Max replied promptly, sitting forward and pinching the bridge of his nose, "Don't try to play it cool. We both know why I'm here, David." He crossed his arms. However it was possible, David paled even more and accompanied it with a difficult swallow.

"Straight, ah-" his eyes shifted to Gwen, "straight to the point, aren't you?" David tried to give a dry laugh but it quickly died in his throat when Max continued to stare at him expectantly. He took a deep, steadying breath, and seemed to psyche himself up for the talk. "Alright. So- we need to discuss what happened the other night in the showers."

Max smirked.

"I- uh, actually..." David eyed Gwen. "I'd like to speak with Max about this in private if you don't mind." Max turned around in his seat and raised one brow at the woman in the corner. She shook her head.

"Whatever's going on here, I think you're gonna need me to have your back on it," she told David, then shot the bird at Max. Max's apathetic frown became a smirk.

"I can take care of this myself. Thank you," he reassured her, but Gwen stayed.

Perhaps David didn't, but Max caught on pretty fast that what Gwen actually wanted was to eavesdrop. It gave him an idea of how to move things along and he turned back to David with the devil in his eyes.

"There isn't a lot of privacy around here, is there, Davey?" Max began with a falsely-innocent tone. David could feel hell's first wind coming and paled in fear. "I don't know how you - y'know, _take care of yourself_ with such prying eyes and ears. Well, that's not true, I know exactly how you-"

"Max-" David raised his voice, face blossoming with red. Max cut him off to continue.

"Maybe we should take this to another room," he suggested, gesturing to David's bedroom. "Since she won't leave this one, after all."

David opened his mouth to respond and then closed it again to ponder Max's offer. After a moment of thought, he fixed his eyes on Gwen pleadingly.

"I really need to speak with Max alone. Please."

Gwen gave David questioning elevator eyes before turning and exiting to her bedroom to leave them in peace finally. David breathed a sigh of relief and Max one of grief. Not every idea would always pan out in his favour. David focused on him once more. Max frowned and crossed his arms.

David opened his mouth.

"You know she's still eavesdropping, right?" Max cut in. He waited for David to respond with blatant denial but instead David just stared at him for a few moments without saying anything.

"One moment," he excused himself.

Max followed David with his eyes as the man stood up and headed toward Gwen's door.

"Gwen?" he said with a knock, despite knowing she was right against the door. Gwen opened up and David spoke quietly and in a surprisingly level tone as he laid her down in a bed of lies. "Max is having... boy trouble and feels uncomfortable with you listening to our conversation."

He had to give him props for lying with a straight face on this one, it was clearly working and was actually somewhat believable.

"Max is coming to _you_ for puberty advice?" she questioned in disbelief.

"Uh- well," David quickly glanced back at him, "Max is a boy and I'm the only adult male here while Mister Campbell is away so..." David gave her an uneasy grin accompanied by a nervous chuckle.

Gwen rolled her eyes, "Jesus, alright go talk about boners or whatever then." David's stomach dropped clear to his feet and the door was shut in his face.

Max snickered from behind. David took a breath and turned to see Max having moved to lean against his bedroom door frame.

"If I were you, I wouldn't risk it. You wouldn't want her to hear us talk about boners, would you?"

David glowered at him, but had to agree and walked past him into his bedroom. Max shut the door behind them.

David didn't sit on his bed. He wordlessly discouraged Max from doing the same. Instead, David sat down cross-legged on the floor rug. Max sat on David's bed anyway, prompting a frown.

They sat in yet another awkward silence for minutes that felt like hours. David kept fidgeting with his hands in his lap and biting his lip and running his fingers through his hair. He searched for so long for the right words to say before finally discovering them.

"I..." David hesitated, looking down to the floor in shame. "About what happened in the showers..." He twiddled his thumbs in his lap and screwed his eyes shut as he steeled himself for what he was about to say. "I'm so sorry, Max. What we did - what you went through that night was a despicable thing for me to do. Something I'll never _ever_ forgive myself for. And I wouldn't expect you to forgive me either."

Max let him talk.

"I hope you can believe me when I say I'm going to seek help for this. And that I have never in my life thought about doing that to you or any other child. It was so... sudden."

Max stayed quiet. David swallowed. His face was as red as a beet.

"I would, um, like to ask you something." He took a deep breath. "You're a very smart kid, Max, and a lot more grown up than most kids your age. You understand what happened, don't you?"

Max nodded, raising a brow.

"And you understand that kind of thing is reserved for adults only, correct?"

Max didn't nod, but David continued anyway.

"I just - I feel horrible asking this, but I need this job. You said it yourself, the job market is impossible these days. And I know you hate it but I _really_ love this camp, Max. I've been here since I was a kid and I know every rock, tree, and creature on the whole camp grounds. Of course it's no excuse for what I've done and under no circumstances should it ever factor in a case like this. I'm not asking for mercy. I don't... exactly know what I'm asking for. Nothing, I guess?" David spluttered, "T-Time, maybe. I'm seeking help and all, but I still need this job to pay expenses and-"

Max finally butted in, "For god's sake, idiot, I'm not after your job. I'm the one that forced you into it. And then told you to shut up when you tried to apologize the first time."

"Oh," David visibly relaxed, releasing a breath, "thank goodness." He shuffled in place a bit, then resumed his anxious posture. "But we still need to talk about this." Max rolled his eyes. "For your sake."

"For my sake or _yours_ , David?"

"Max, this isn't a game. What happened was so wrong, and very, very _illegal_. I feel bad enough asking you to keep it a secret, but having done it alone goes against my entire code of ethics."

"So, yours."

" _Please_. I need you to understand me when I'm telling you that this was in no way, shape, or form morally correct."

"Oh my _god_ , shut. up."

"Max-"

"David, fucking shut up about being a pedophile for two seconds. You didn't even do shit! Use that prissy little pink phone to look up what a 'teleiophile' is." David knit his brows and slowly pulled out his phone, genuinely curious. "Look, I don't know what I expected in the beginning - I just wanted to fuck you up for making me do that shitty rope course."

David's eyes flicked up, "That's what this is about?" he asked sadly. Max ignored his question and David's eyes sunk back down to his phone as the other continued talking.

"And I blackmailed the _fuck_ outta you when I caught you jacking off." David's shoulders tensed. "But like, I dunno man," Max rubbed the back of his neck and then his temples, "you can't follow someone around for weeks and edge them every single day without some wires getting crossed."

David put his face in his hands, dropping his phone in his lap, "I am so sorry you had to go through that. It's all my fault."

Max groaned out loud and jumped down off the bed, brandishing his hands in exasperation, "No! Didn't you just hear anything I said, idiot? You didn't put me through anything! Except that stupid ropes course." He crossed his arms. "You might have noticed by now, but I don't actually do anything I don't wanna do." Max shrugged and said to himself, "Without incentive, anyway."

David couldn't think of anything to say. He was at a loss for words as the crushing weight of shame and guilt washed over him. Max eyed him up and down before sighing and walking up to him. He grabbed the tuft of David's hair and jerked his head back, fixing fiery eyes at him.

He opened his mouth to continue correcting him, but instead froze in place. He could _feel_ the utter terror radiating off of David as their eyes locked. Max's chest tightened, forcing a breath out of him.

"Oh my god," he breathed, feeling a familiar urgency introduce itself. He shifted, never breaking eye contact with David, and reached down to rub between his legs, which immediately made David break eye contact.

"Stop it," David said sternly, admiring the wall. "This isn't the way to prove your point."

Max's hand hesitated for only a second before pressing against himself heavier, "Oh I think we're well past that now," Max uttered to himself more than David. David either didn't hear it or ignored it.

"Even if you are a... 'teleiophile', it doesn't mean you can do this to me. You need to understand the importance of mutual consent."

He didn't actually intend it to, but Max's voice came out a lot lower in response, "' _do this to you'_?" he repeated, feeling himself harden a little more the second time around. He exhaled heavily, "do _what_ to you?"

David's throat closed up. He tried and failed to swallow three times, then pulled himself out of Max's grasp and - Max suddenly climbed into his lap, placing one hand on his shoulder while the other continued to grind at his crotch. " _What am I doing to you, David_?" Max crooned. Then he chuckled breathily, "And who exactly isn't consenting here?" Max shifted forward until the hand palming at his erection was replaced by the pressure of settling against David's crotch. He could feel the outline of David's cock through his clothes. Max said with satisfaction in his tone, "Doesn't feel like you have any objections about this."

Panic surged through David's body, he practically threw Max off of him. Or tried at least. The moment David's hand launched out to press against his chest, Max steeled his grip on David's shoulder and dug his nails into the fabric of his shirt. In his panic, David tried again, with both hands, to remove Max from his lap, but Max abandoned the hardness in his jeans to grip onto his object of burning lust.

"Don't fight it, idiot," Max growled lustfully, rolling his hips against David, "You want it again. I want it again. You have no _fucking idea_ how much I've been thinking about this. I gotta give you props for being a good lay."

"Max, no-" David argued, shaking his head. His hands were trembling, Max noticed second to the semi David was forming as he looked down.

"I think you mean, 'Max, _yes._ '" His voice dripped with sensuality. Max leaned forward and curled his fists into the collar of David's shirt. He grit his teeth and rocked his hips forward, effectively rutting his and David's growing erections against each other. A shameful sigh tore its way out of David's throat that died into a whimper. This man was so pathetically easy to break and manipulate.

"Ah, Max-" he choked out in an attempt to protest. Max interrupted him with a moan of his own.

" _Fuck_ , David."

Because it was fucking _hot_.

And it was making Max incredibly hot too. He shed his hoodie and shirt in record time, discarding it to the floor and immediately pressing his body flesh with David's.

David was still making an, albeit very _weak,_ attempt to fight this; and Max knew that whatever he'd done to David that night was sticking with him. If his loss of vitality wasn't obvious enough, his evident and shameful arousal spoke volumes. Max hadn't been the only one still fantasizing about their sex, as much as David _profoundly_ wished it different. He liked it. And he liked this.

After all, David wasn't physically weak. He clearly had no trouble lifting Max during their sex (or any other time for that matter. The man _does_ conduct weights camp regularly...); he could have freed himself of Max's grasp at any time. Even through a violent struggle, if need be. But he didn't. He was sitting there, and he was desperately pleading, but he wasn't _fighting_ it. And every tiny micro-crack in David's resolve was an open door for Max to bust right down and take everything he fucking wanted. David was against it morally, he made that stupidly clear, but after dragging him around on a leash for weeks, Max had collared him that night. And ownership is a damn near impossible thing to break out of.

So when Max's hands snaked their way down to the hem of David's night shirt and David urged them away with a soft plea, Max grinned and chuckled, jerking the fabric upwards anyway. He pushed it up to David's throat and latched onto the pale flesh in front of him, suckling and nipping wherever he landed to leave a mark on his property.

And this absolutely ruined him. David went lax, head rolling back and shoulders slumping. He breathed out a whiny sigh that made Max twitch in his jeans. Max made a mental note to use this again in the future.

Because this was just the second time. It would _not_ be the last.

Plus that sound made him really hard. David in distress. It was a beautiful sound. Attractive. With David lax, Max trusted the opportunity to reach back down to his jeans and undo the button while moving his mouth to a new spot to mark.

He felt David's cock pulse, hardening a little more beneath him. The man whimpered again and pathetically attempted to push at Max once more. It, of course, failed. Max shrugged his hand away and relocated his tongue and lips to David's throat. Which, in turn, made David harden even more.

The fight in him was dying. Max had him whipped. Their bare chests pressed together, Max instead pushed David back until he was laying on top of him, kissing his stomach. His little hand worked down the zipper to his jeans and pushed them partway down his hips, then migrated to the elastic band of David's pajama pants. He inched them down David's waist until he was able to grind his erection against David's with only their underwear to separate them. Max moaned heavy against the bottom of David's ribs, his hot breath making David's skin prickle.

"Fuck, this is hot," he rasped, bracing his hands against David's hips and then sitting up to rock his hips into David's. "Fuck fuck fuck."

David noticeably reacted to Max's filthy mouth, twitching against him. Max glanced up to see David's hands covering his face and muffling the tiny whimpers and whines dribbling from his lips. He grinned maliciously.

"You like that, don't you? You like it when I swear? Is that why you always tell me to watch my language? So you don't get hard in front of everyone?"

The whimpers became words - "No no no no no, I swear..." keeping their same quiet, pathetic consistency. Max laughed.

"Yeah, okay. I mean, I don't believe you, but okay."

"It's-" David's words were broken by gasps at Max's movements. His head was spinning, the world seemed staticky and surreal, his nerves were lit up. "I-It's not like that, Max!"

"Relax. Your secret's safe with me." And it was, "Considering it's my secret too."

David's response was a long, sad whine. He felt so horrible about that. About what was currently happening. About not being able to stop it. God what was wrong with him.

Max noticed David's erection starting to wilt. His mind must be wandering; slandering himself. That wouldn't do. Time to up his game. He began peeling his and David's underwear away, both joining up with their pants below their hips. When they were both free, Max circled a hand around their erections and stroked them together in sync. With the buck of his hips and the moan that poured from David's lips, it wouldn't even be obvious he was trying to stop himself from enjoying this.

"Fuuuck you're so hot like this, you sick bastard," Max moaned, thrusting his hips and stroking them both at the same time. "I want you inside me."

"Max..." David heaved, "no..." Sweat dribbled down his forehead, soaking his hair. He wiped his wrist across his head, displacing stands of his hair across his face. His half-mast eyes caught Max's expression. Lustful and evil. Dripping with desire, mounted upon hate.

And in that moment, David knew he was fucked.

His eyes rolled back and with a defeated moan, his hand darted down to replace Max's hand around their cocks, stroking furiously.

"I'm _so sorry_ ," he sobbed, bucking his hips into his movements. Max's moans filled the room.

"Fuck," Max breathed, sitting back and rolling his hips into David's sex, " _I'm not_."

David sat up suddenly, coiling his arms around Max and continuing to buck upwards against Max's hard-on; "I know," he rasped.

The words hit Max like a punch to the gut and he went lax in David's arms, moaning " _God, yes_ ," over and over and over again.

The pair continued on like that for minutes longer until Max began leaking precome. Then he separated himself from the other with both hands against his chest.

"I fucking want you, idiot. Fuck me over your bed." David shuddered hard and twitched, then bit his lip and nodded solemnly. Max returned with a grin, then got up from David's lap.

Before heading over to the bed, Max made sure to lock the bedroom door, then barricaded it with a chair beneath the handle. When he turned back, David was standing at the edge of the bed, staring down at the floorboards with hollow eyes. _Fuck_. Max gave his cock a few strokes as he stalked back over to his partner and climbed onto the bed.

He pushed his jeans and underwear down far enough to expose his ass for David, but kept them on. He said nothing but grinned as he watched David reach for the small bottle of lube he kept in his bedside table for personal use and squeeze some out onto his fingers. With one hand steadying on Max's hip, David swallowed hard and gently began spreading it along Max's entrance, shallowly pressing inside him every so often.

Max's moans were light against David's sheets as the cool lubricant readied him. He stroked himself in waiting, gazing back at David as he worked him over.

"Jesus," Max uttered, "that feels good." He tried to encourage David to proceed. It worked wonders, making David push his fingers in a little further, which in turn elicited a moan from Max. "Oh _god,_ " he moaned, curling his fingers into the bedsheets, "Fuck, this is this torture."

David paused. Max bit his lip and hissed at his poor word choice, then promptly threw his hips back against David's tentative hand, coaxing him forward. He continued, "Please don't stop. I need more."

"Max, I-"

"Don't. _fucking._ stop." Max interrupted sternly, followed immediately by a broken moan at David's finger lurching forward. He felt David's cock twitch against his thigh. After a pensive moment, David quietly replied.

"Okay."

Max's breath left him in a heaving moan as David pushed two fingers all the way in down to his knuckles.

"Oh _fuck_ that's good. Keep going."

David did. One hand resting on Max's hip, David rhythmically worked his fingers in and out of Max, relaxing his body around them. Max's breathing coordinated with each movement as did the motions of his hand around his hard and leaking cock.

"I'm so sorry," he heard David mumble from behind. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." But David's fingers never stopped. Max responded with a breathy chuckle but didn't dignify it with an actual response. David knew he was into it already, he was apologizing more to himself at this point.

When Max felt his lower stomach tense up, he knew it was time to move on.

"Alright," he huffed, propping himself up on his arms, "as much as I'm enjoying this, I don't wanna come until you fuck me. So hurry up and get inside me already."

David cringed at these words. Or maybe he cringed at the effect it had on him. Max watched from over his shoulder as David's cock throbbed and he responded to it by slicking up his hand and stroking it to readiness. David's eyes fell shut and tightened as he pressed the tip against Max and gently pressed in.

 _Oooh god wow that was... really something else_. Max's hand tightened around his cock and his jerks became rougher. _Wow wow wow_ , it was just as incredible as before. This was an amazing idea. He moaned into the mattress, raking his nails down the cotton bedsheets.

" _Yeeesss,_ " he breathed until David's hips finally met his. They were still for a moment, Max's breaths heaving as his body adjusted to the cock inside him.

David waited until Max gave the go ahead before he started shallowly rocking his hips forward.

"Ah," David huffed as sparks of pleasure rolled through his abdomen. He was barely moving at all, but his sensors were hyper active. He gripped Max's hips a little harder and pulled him close, pushing in to the hilt.

"Fuck," Max swore. He curled his fingers in the bedsheets. That hurt a bit. He wasn't about to let David know that, though, and ruin this whole thing. So he accompanied it with a few stokes to his aching cock, which in turn helped the pressure.

David pulled back out slowly, slow enough to give Max goosebumps.

"Ohh yeah," he moaned with the slow drag of David's cock against his insides. David released a heavy, pleasured breath and eased back in so as to not hurt his partner. "Mmm, fuck that's good."

Max's body began to relax and David's picked up the slack. Gradually, his motions became more rhythmic and, with the help of Max's ostentatious moaning, a touch confident. Max kept glancing back over his shoulder to watch David's face as he was fucking him. The way his eyes were glazed over and half mast and his cheeks bloomed with red, and the way his hair, drenched with sweat, stuck to his forehead. There was this focused and single-minded look about him like this and something about it just sent surges of heat all through Max's writhing body.

Then before he knew it was coming, Max's body locked up and spilled his seed onto David's bedsheets.

"Aah! _Shit_ ," he groaned, jerking his cock with each spurt of ecstasy. When his orgasm subsided, he draped forward onto the bed and gave a content sigh.

"Dammit, I didn't mean to come that fast." He glanced back over his shoulder where David was biting his lip and gazing lustfully at him, still hard inside him. Max smirked, "Keep going."

"Thank you," David murmured, picking his pace back up. He rolled his head back and let out a breathy moan. His laboured breathing filled the room, only accompanied by the sound of skin on skin and Max's occasional grunts.

Finally after a few minutes more, David made a pensive noise before pulling out and stoking himself to orgasm on Max's back. Max scoffed and muttered something under his breath that David understood to be a gripe about his choice of protection. David's body gave a few last jerks before he sighed a breath of exertion and lied down next to Max's inert frame.

"Um," he began nervously. Max turned his head to David's speaking, his eyelids heavy. David couldn't meet his gaze, "I, uh, hope it was good for you," he said quietly. Max frowned and turned his head back the other way.

"Moron."

There were a few moments of awkward silence before David sat up and extended a tentative hand out to pat Max's woolly hair. Max instantly shot a daggering glare toward him.

"Move it or lose it," he snapped. David jerked his hand away.

"Sorry! I uh- I just- trying to comfort you."

Max narrowed his eyes at him.

David continued, nervously glancing around the room, "Do you need- can I get you anything? Some water; a towel, maybe? Would you like a snack at all?"

"I'd like you to shut the hell up, for starters," Max said, pinching the bridge of his nose. David bit his lip and cast his eyes down. "And uh, actually water would be great."

David smiled, happy to oblige. Max figured he'd cling to anything that would relinquish the guilt. David stood up and made himself decent again, and Max reached for his blanket to wipe the come off his back. David frowned.

"Max," he grumbled, "I would have gotten you a towel for that."

"Mine's already on your bed anyway. You're sleeping with it either way, idiot."

David opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and simply smiled.

"I'll be right back," he said sweetly and exited the room. Max stuck out his tongue.

"Ugh, no thanks." He got up and slid off the bed, doing up his pants and grabbing his shirt and hoodie off the floor. He waited until it was clear to slip out the front door and head back to his tent, putting his clothes on as he walked.

The rustling of the tent and creak of his cot woke Neil up as he was settling in. His best friend sat up and rubbed his eyes and Max froze like a deer in the headlights.

"Max?" he said groggily, "Dude, where were you?"

"Taking a walk," he said a little too fast. He blinked, heart beating in his throat.

"'A walk', really? Just your casual midnight jaunt?" He and Max locked eyes.

"Well what the hell do you do to relax, fucking long division?"

Neil squinted at him then laid back down, turning to his other side.

"Whatever, just be quiet. People are actually trying to get their beauty sleep here."

Max smirked and tucked himself into bed, his mind replaying over and over how easily broken and whipped David was. He chewed his lip, feeling power course through him, feeling in control. David's stupid brightness shattered and enslaved to his body. _Fuck it was so good_.

And it was going to be just as good tomorrow.


End file.
